Abstract
BackgroundThe promotion of physical activity among an overweight/obese population is an important challenge for clinical practitioners and researchers. In this regard, completing a questionnaire on cognitions could be a simple and easy strategy to increase levels of physical activity. Thus, the aim of the present study was to test the effect of completing a questionnaire based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) on the level of physical activity.MethodsOverall, 452 overweight/obese adults were recruited and randomized to the experimental or control group. At baseline, participants completed a questionnaire on cognitions regarding their participation in leisure-time physical activity (experimental condition) versus a questionnaire on fruit and vegetable consumption (control condition). The questionnaires assessed the TPB variables that are beliefs, attitude, norm, perception of control, intention and a few additional variables from other theories. At three-month follow-up, leisure-time physical activity was self-reported by means of a short questionnaire. An analysis of covariance with baseline physical activity level as covariate was used to verify the effect of the intervention.ResultsAt follow-up, 373 participants completed the leisure-time physical activity questionnaire. The statistical analysis showed that physical activity participation was greater among participants in the experimental condition than those in the control condition (F(1,370) = 6.85, p = .009, d = 0.20).ConclusionsFindings indicate that completing a TPB questionnaire has a significant positive impact on subsequent participation in physical activity. Consequently, asking individuals to complete such a questionnaire is a simple, inexpensive and easy strategy to increase the level of physical activity among overweight/obese adults.
Highlights
The promotion of physical activity among an overweight/obese population is an important challenge for clinical practitioners and researchers
Williams, Block and Fitzsimons [14] observed that asking participants to answer a single intention question about participation in exercise led to a significant increase in exercise frequency at twomonth follow-up [15]
The results for the mere-measurement effect did not differ when controlled for gender
Summary
The promotion of physical activity among an overweight/obese population is an important challenge for clinical practitioners and researchers. A few researchers have observed that a rudimentary exercise such as completing a questionnaire on cognitions regarding a given behavior can change this behavior In this respect, French and Sutton [6] have highlighted the importance of studying this effect for the prediction of habitual health behaviors. Williams, Block and Fitzsimons [14] observed that asking participants to answer a single intention question about participation in exercise led to a significant increase in exercise frequency (small-to-medium effect size; d = 0.26) at twomonth follow-up [15] This pattern of results has been observed for commitment to health and fitness assessment [10,11] and for self-reported walking [16], leading to small-to-medium effect sizes on behavior (d = 0.20, 0.28 and h2 = 0.07 respectively). These four studies were realized among undergraduate university students and were not based on clear theoretical frameworks, with the exception of the study by Spence et al.[16] which was inspired by the Self-efficacy Theory [17]
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