I Sit but I Don't Know Why: Investigating the Multiple Precursors of Leisure-Time Sedentary Behaviors

Adding planning strategies to an experiential and conceptual knowledge-based intervention: Does it help to reduce sedentary time?

OBJECTIVE

The study compared the effects of an "active" control condition addressing conceptual and experiential knowledge about sedentary behavior, with an intervention condition combining conceptual and experiential knowledge together with action planning, coping planning, and behavioral substitution. We targeted a decrease in sedentary time as the primary outcome.

METHODS

A preregistered trial (#NCT04131270) was carried out with 603 participants aged 11-86 years (M = 33.57; 65.2% women), randomly assigned to the "planning + knowledge" condition or the "knowledge" condition. Sedentary time was assessed with ActiGraph wGT3X-BT accelerometers at baseline, 1-week, and 36-week follow-ups. Conceptual knowledge strategies involved information about health consequences and instructions on how to perform behaviors while experiential knowledge was enhanced by participants taking/discussing photographs of their home environment that has been triggering sedentary behavior. Action/coping plans referred to ways to substitute sedentary behavior with bouts of physical activity behaviors. Mixed models were fit.

RESULTS

No significant Time × Condition interaction was found. In the total sample, sedentary time estimated to be around 502.34 min/day at baseline, showed a significant linear decline over time (p = .002), by approximately -1.22 min per each month elapsing since baseline (-9.76 min/day across 8 months).

CONCLUSIONS

The findings suggest that applying behavior change techniques targeting both conceptual and experiential knowledge about antecedents, circumstances, and consequences of sedentary behavior may result in a small reduction of sedentary time. Adding action plans, coping planning, and behavioral substitution did not improve the effectiveness of the intervention.

Automaticity mediates the association between action planning and physical activity, especially when autonomous motivation is high

OBJECTIVES

Action planning promotes physical activity (PA). However, mechanisms underlying this association are poorly understood, as are the variables that moderate this link remain unexplored. To fill these gaps, we investigated whether automaticity mediated the association between action planning and PA, and whether autonomous motivation moderated this mediation.

METHODS AND MEASURES

PA was measured by accelerometry over seven days among a sample of 124 adults. Action planning, automaticity, and autonomous motivation were assessed by questionnaires.

RESULTS

Structural equation models revealed that automaticity mediated the association between action planning and PA (total effect, β = .29, p < .001) - action planning was associated with automaticity (a path, β = .47, p < .001), which in turn related to PA (b path, β = .33, p = .003). Autonomous motivation moderated the a path (β = .16, p = .035) - action planning was more strongly associated with automaticity when autonomous motivation was high (+1 standard-deviation [SD]) (unstandardized b = 0.77, p < .001) versus low (-1 SD) (b = 0.35, p = .023).

CONCLUSION

These findings not only support that action planning favors an automatic behavioral regulation, but also highlight that a high autonomous motivation toward PA may reinforce this mechanism.

Motivational and emotional correlates of physical activity and sedentary behavior after cardiac rehabilitation: an observational study

BACKGROUND

The present study assessed physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB) levels and their motivational and emotional health-related correlates, in outpatients following a cardiovascular rehabilitation (CR) program, and compared these variables with those of a healthy control group.

METHODS

The study included 119 participants: 68 CR outpatients (Mage 57.76 ± 10.76; 86.76% males) and 51 control participants matched on age (Mage 57.35 ± 6.33 years; 45.10% males). PA and SB were assessed using accelerometers during the first week post-discharge for outpatients and during a typical week for controls. Motivational (i.e., perceived capabilities, affective and instrumental attitudes, intention, approach-avoidance tendencies) and emotional health-related variables (i.e., anxiety, depressive symptoms, fatigue, pain intensity) were measured using validated scales. PA and SB data from 17 outpatients and 42 controls were valid for analysis, resulting in a final sample of 59 participants.

RESULTS

CR outpatients engaged an average of 60.21 (± 34.79) min of moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA), and 548.69 (± 58.64) min of SB per day, with 18 more minutes of MVPA per day than controls (p = .038). Univariate and multivariate regressions indicated that positive affective attitudes were associated with higher MVPA (b = 10.32, R2 = 0.07, p = .029), and that males spent more time in SB than females (b = 40.54, R2 = 0.09, p = .045). Univariate and multivariate logistic regressions showed that meeting the World Health Organization's weekly guidelines for MVPA was associated with higher perceived capabilities toward PA and more positive affective attitudes (OR = 1.17, p = .030; OR = 1.26, p < .001, respectively). Interaction tests showed no significant differences in these results between outpatients and controls.

CONCLUSION

The study highlights an association between higher perceived capabilities and positive affective attitudes toward PA with higher PA levels after outpatient CR. While these findings suggest that enhancing these motivational variables may be beneficial for increasing PA levels after CR, longitudinal and experimental studies are needed to further establish their role.

You don't know why you (don't) exercise: The relationship between automatic processes and physical activity (or sedentary behavior): A meta-analysis

OBJECTIVES

This meta-analysis aimed to examine the relationship between automatic processes and behavior as well as their moderators.

METHODS

There were 126 effect sizes (Fisher's Z) extracted from 55 independent research studies involving 10,432 participants. Meta-analyses were conducted using Comprehensive Meta-Analysis Version 3.3. Univariate meta-regression models were used to analyze underlying moderators.

RESULTS

Meta-analysis after correction found that automatic processes could significantly and positively predict behavior, but the effect size was small (Fisher's Z = 0.057, p < 0.001, 95% CI [0.043, 0.070]).

CONCLUSIONS

Different components of automatic processes, task reliability, and study design moderated the relationship between automatic processes and behavior. Future research could explore automatic measures at a neurophysiological level or use population-matched stimuli for specific populations to improve measure validity. In addition, future research should accumulate evidence on how to reduce sedentary behavior.

Sitting vs. standing: an urgent need to rebalance our world

During their activities of daily living, humans run, walk, stand, sit and lie down. Recent changes in our environment have favored sedentary behavior over more physically active behavior to such a degree that our health is in danger. Here, we sought to address the problem of excessive time spent seated from various theoretical viewpoints, including postural control, human factors engineering, human history and health psychology. If nothing is done now, the high prevalence of sitting will continue to increase. We make a case for the standing position by demonstrating that spending more time upright can mitigate the physiological and psychological problems associated with excessive sitting without lowering task performance and productivity. The psychological literature even highlights potential benefits of performing certain tasks in the standing position. We propose a number of recommendations on spending more time (but not too much) in the standing position and on more active, nonambulatory behaviors. There is a need to inform people about (i) harmful consequences of excessive sitting and (ii) benefits of spending more time performing active, nonambulatory behaviors. One clear benefit is to reduce detrimental health consequences of excessive sitting and to provide potential additional benefits in terms of productivity and performance.

Automatic approach-avoidance tendency toward physical activity, sedentary, and neutral stimuli as a function of age, explicit affective attitude, and intention to be active

Using computerized reaction-time tasks assessing automatic attitudes, studies have shown that healthy young adults have faster reaction times when approaching physical activity stimuli than when avoiding them. The opposite has been observed for sedentary stimuli. However, it is unclear whether these results hold across the lifespan and when error rates and a possible generic approach-avoidance tendency are accounted for. Here, reaction times and errors in online approach-avoidance tasks of 130 participants aged 21 to 77 years were analyzed using mixed-effects models. Automatic approach-avoidance tendencies were tested using physical activity, sedentary, and neutral stimuli. Explicit attitudes toward physical activity and intention to be physically active were self-reported. Results accounting for age, sex, gender, level of physical activity, body mass index, and chronic health condition confirmed a main tendency to approach physical activity stimuli (i.e., faster reaction to approach vs. avoid; p = .001) and to avoid sedentary stimuli (i.e., faster reaction to avoid vs. approach; p < .001). Results based on neutral stimuli revealed a generic approach tendency in early adulthood (i.e., faster approach before age 53 and fewer errors before age 36) and a generic avoidance tendency in older adults (i.e., more errors after age 60). When accounting for these generic tendencies, results showed a greater tendency (i.e., fewer errors) to avoid than approach sedentary stimuli after aged 50, but not before (p = .026). Exploratory analyses showed that irrespective of age, participants were faster at approaching physical activity (p = .028) and avoiding sedentary stimuli (p = .041) when they considered physical activity as pleasant and enjoyable (explicit attitude). However, results showed no evidence of an association between approach-avoidance tendencies and the intention to be physically active. Taken together, these results suggest that both age and explicit attitudes can affect the general tendency to approach physical activity stimuli and to avoid sedentary stimuli.