Infrequent Exercisers Research Articles

A Cross-Cultural Investigation of the Lifestyle Factors Affecting Laypeople’s Allocation of a Scarce Medical Resource

This study investigates how lifestyle factors affect laypeople’s allocation of a scarce medical resource and explores cross-cultural differences in ethical decision-making between the UK, France and Switzerland. A total of 193 participants completed an online questionnaire in which they had to rate the profiles of 16 hypothetical patients in terms of priority for access to kidney dialysis. Each profile was a unique combination of the following lifestyle factors: smoking behaviour, alcohol consumption, weight and amount of physical activity. As predicted, it was found that non-smokers were favoured over smokers, moderate drinkers over heavy drinkers, normal weight patients over obese patients and frequent exercisers over infrequent exercisers. However, contrary to our predictions, no cross-cultural differences were evident. The potential impact of these findings with respect to the formulation of guidelines for allocating scarce medical resources is discussed.

Working Memory in Collegiate Athletes and Non-Athletes: A Comparison of Team-Sports Athletes, Solo-Sports Athletes, Frequent Exercisers and Infrequent Exercisers

Past research suggests that exercise is associated with improved working memory (WM) abilities, and that athletes have better executive functioning and WM skills than non-athletes. However, no studies to date have separated the effects of exercise from the effects of athletic participation when examining WM. This study had three primary goals: (1) to determine whether amateur college athletes have better auditory and visual WM than their non-athlete peers who exercise frequently and whether non-athlete frequent exercisers have better WM than non-athlete infrequent exercisers (2) to determine whether amateur participation in particular types of sports (team-based versus solo sports) corresponds to differences in auditory or visual WM, and (3) to examine whether gender plays a role in the relationships between exercise, athletic participation and WM. This study was a cross-sectional, correlational design that examined WM in men versus women college students divided into four groups (team-sports athletes, solo-sports athletes, frequent exercisers, and infrequent exercisers). 153 college students completed five tests of auditory (Digit Span subtest, PASAT) and visual (Spatial Span subtest, N-Back, WCST) WM. Collegiate men who participated in team-based sports outperformed collegiate men who participated in solo-sports in auditory WM. The two non-athlete groups (frequent and infrequent exercisers) earned scores between those of the two athlete groups. Male infrequent exercisers demonstrated better visual WM than the other three male athlete/exerciser groups. In contrast, neither athletic participation nor exercise affected collegiate women’s WM abilities. Our results did not support our hypothesis that all types of student athletes would exhibit better WM than students who exercise regularly but do not engage in competitive sports. Additionally, our data did not indicate that frequent exercise is associated with stronger WM skills than infrequent exercise in non-athlete college students. Participation in team-based sports was associated with better auditory WM skills than participation in solo sports, but this was only true for male, not female, athletes. Thus, gender was an important factor in delineating the relationships between exercise, athletic participation and WM.

Using the wellness inventory to assess health and well-being in college students at the end of the semester

Objective: The authors examined the end of semester outcomes (December, 2017) on the Wellness Inventory and demographics among college students taking a Physical Education (PED 101) course at a university in the southeast United States. Participants: College students were assessed at the end of the semester for health and well-being outcomes according to the Wellness Inventory. Results: Results showed that there were few gender or age differences for the dimensions of well-being. However, there were significant differences for most of the dimensions of health and well-being between frequent exercisers and infrequent exercisers. There were also significant differences between students who reported being in excellent health versus students who reported being in fair or poor health. Conclusions: Consistent exercise throughout the week may play a role in overall health and well-being. The results from this study warrant further investigation into the relationship between the exercise frequency and the dimensions of health and well-being.

Perceived Barriers to Exercise in the First Trimester of Pregnancy.

Regular physical activity has been shown to improve pregnancy outcomes. We sought to identify barriers to exercise during the first trimester of pregnancy. Five hundred forty-nine pregnant women in their first trimester rated barriers to exercise on a scale of 1 (not a barrier) to 5 (a huge barrier) and recorded physical activity (minutes/week). Women were placed into one of three classifications, nonexercisers (zero exercise), infrequent exercisers (<150 minutes/week), or exercisers (≥150 minutes/week). The greatest barriers (mean) were nausea/fatigue (3.0) and lack of time (2.6). Exercisers reported significantly lower barrier levels. Nausea/fatigue was a greater barrier for nonexercisers compared to exercisers (3.6 vs 2.8, p < .001). Focusing education and interventions on these barriers may help pregnant women achieve healthy exercise levels.

Double-edged sword: The effect of exergaming on other forms of exercise; a randomized controlled trial using the self-categorization theory

BackgroundNo study has yet adopted the perspective of the self-categorization theory to examine the impact of playing exergames on players' attitudes and intentions towards other forms of exercise. PurposeTo examine the impact of playing exergames on players' attitudes and intentions to engage in other exercise and how such an impact depends on previous exercise frequency. MethodsThis randomized controlled trial recruited 117 college students who were randomly assigned to either an intervention group (n = 55) or a control group (n = 62). Participants in the first group played an exergame for 30 min, three times per week for 12 weeks. This study calculated the changes in the participants' attitudes and intentions before and after the program, and compared the differences between the two groups. ResultsExergaming improved the players' attitudes toward other forms of exercise. Such improvement was significant for frequent exercisers, but not for infrequent exercisers. Surprisingly, playing exergames strengthened the intentions to engage in other forms of exercise for frequent exercisers, but weakened such intentions for infrequent exercisers. ConclusionsExergaming encourages frequent exercisers to engage in other forms of exercise, but does the opposite among infrequent exercisers. OriginalityThis study is the first identifying the contingent effect of exergaming on users' attitudes and intentions toward other forms of exercise.

The Sooner, the Better: Exercise Outcome Proximity and Intrinsic Motivation

Despite evidence that outcomes are highly valued when they are expected sooner rather than further into the future (Ainslie, 1975), limited research effort has been devoted to understanding the role of exercise outcome proximity. The purpose of this study was to examine how temporal proximity to positive outcomes influences exercisers' intrinsic motivation. We expected that focusing people on temporally proximal exercise outcomes would increase intrinsic motivation, especially among low-frequency exercisers. This online experimental study was completed by 135 community exercisers (Mage = 31.11, SD = 10.29; 62% female) who reported an average of 4.86 exercise bouts per week (SD = 2.12). Participants were randomly assigned to a condition that primed temporally proximal positive exercise outcomes (i.e. experienced during or directly following an exercise bout) or temporally distal outcomes (i.e. experienced after days, months, or years of regular exercise). Participants then reported perceptions of behavioral regulation in exercise. As expected, the proximal exercise outcome condition elicited increased intrinsic regulation among those participants who exercised less frequently (i.e. 1 SD below the mean). This study reveals the importance of considering proximity as an important dimension of exercise outcomes-particularly when promoting intrinsic motivation among relatively infrequent exercisers.

Exercise and social support are associated with psychological distress outcomes in a population of community-dwelling older adults

Exercise reduces the likelihood of psychological distress, but this may be due to incidental socializing. We gathered information on exercise, social support and three aspects of psychological distress from 583 community-dwelling older adults. Exercise and social support from friends were both associated with lower scores of depression, anxiety and perceived stress. For infrequent exercisers, having a low level of social support indicated higher levels of depression, whereas for frequent exercisers, having a low level of social support did not affect depression levels. Both exercise and social support have roles in regulating psychological well-being in older populations and exercisers are less susceptible to effects of low social support on depression.

I'm Stressed! I Must/can't Exercise Today! Effects Of Stage On Physical Activity And Stress.

While only a handful of prospective studies have been conducted in this area, there is evidence that people engage in less physical activity upon encountering higher levels of psychological stress. Despite this, physical activity is often reported to be an effective coping mechanism to relieve stress. In addition, motivational differences exist between frequent and infrequent exercisers. As a result, it might be that the impact of stress on freely chosen physical activity would differ based on exercise stage of change. PURPOSE: Using a prospective design, we examined the relationship between stress and physical activity, while testing for a moderating effect of stages of change derived from the Transtheoretical Model. METHODS: 95 college-aged females (19.34 ± 2.08 yrs; 64.23 ± 2.03 in; 138.27 ± 29.92 lbs; 23.64 ± 4.91 BMI) were recruited from undergraduate classes and the local community. Participants completed a battery of questionnaires before a 6-week evaluation period. During this period, participants were asked to return a leisure-time physical activity log daily and to return a stress events scale weekly (Weekly Stress Inventory: Brantley, et al., 1997). RESULTS: Results of HLM analyses demonstrated that there was no effect of stress events frequency or intensity on physical activity. However, it was found that this effect was suppressed by exercise stage of change as stages of change interacted with stress (both event frequency and intensity) to effect the amount of total physical activity minutes reported per week (stress frequency, G = -2.61, SE = 0.95, t-ratio = -2.75, df = 76, p = 0.008; stress intensity, G = -0.69, SE = 0.25, t-ratio = -2.74, df = 76, p = 0.008). The stress - physical activity relationship was negative for those in the contemplation stage, positive for those in the maintenance stage, and non-existent for those in preparation and action phases. CONCLUSION: Results are indicative of stress - physical activity relationships that vary by exercise stage of change. Physical activity participation for those at an early stage of change (i.e., contemplation) appears to be negatively influenced by stressful experience, whereas those at the highest stage of change (i.e., maintenance) may exercise more under stress.

The effects of leader gender on self-presentational concerns in exercise

The present study examined the impact of the exercise leader's gender on the self-presentational concerns of women in a live exercise class. Eighty-seven college-aged non- or infrequent exercisers participated in a group exercise class led by either a female or male instructor. Participants completed measures of Self-Presentational Efficacy (SPE), State Social Anxiety (SSA) and State Social Physique Anxiety (SPA-S) prior to and following completion of a group exercise class. A repeated measures Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA), with time as the within-subjects factor and leader gender as the between-subjects factor, was conducted. A significant main effect for time was found (F(3, 80) = 19.65, p < 0.001). Estimated marginal means indicated that all participants reported significantly higher SPE and lower SSA and SPA-S post-exercise. Completing an exercise class may override any self-presentational concerns that can arise from the exercise environment. Future studies should adopt ecologically valid research designs to gain a clearer picture of self-presentational concerns in exercise classes.

Assessing physical activity in an Asian country: low energy expenditure and exercise frequency among adults in Taiwan.

Leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) has been closely related to health improvement. The under-appreciation for energy output by nutritionists stems in part from limited data expressed in caloric equivalent. We converted the frequency, duration, and intensity of LTPA, reported from 15,390 adults in the Taiwan National Health Interview Survey 2001, into kilocalories (kcal). Half of Taiwanese adults admit to no LTPA. Women, lower education or income, younger age, smokers and chewers of betel quid; exercised significantly less than their counterparts. Less than 1/5 (18.9%) of the population in Taiwan was physically active at >or=750 kcal/week, and only 1/7 (13.9%) reached a more desirable goal of >or=1,000 kcal/week, compared with 1/3 in the U.S. The most disconcerting finding was the Taiwan unique U-shaped prevalence for males, with the 25-44 age group being the least active, >or=65 age group being the most active; and S-shaped for females, lowest at age 18-24 years and highest at the two older groups (45-64 and >or=65 years). LTPA was under-appreciated, particularly among the most productive work force (25-44-year group), who exercised with a prevalence only 1/4 of their U.S. counterparts. Expressing LTPA in kcal makes direct comparison easier. Invoking a goal of >or=750 kcal/week for Asians, attainable by exercising 4 hours/week, can facilitate nutritionists in assessing LTPA adequacy. Currently, 4/5 of adults in Taiwan failed to reach this goal. Recognizing the concept of cumulative energy expenditure, in contrast to disciplined daily work for 5 or more days, will encourage the infrequent exercisers such as "weekend warriors" to continue with their activities.

The Relationship between Ante-natal Pelvic Floor Muscle Exercises and Post-partum Stress Incontinence

Background and Purpose The present study was undertaken to investigate whether there is any relationship between ante-natal pelvic floor muscle exercises (PFME) and post-partum stress incontinence. Methods Questionnaires were sent out at 34 weeks of pregnancy, and at eight weeks post-partum, to all women booked in at two hospitals in the North West of England. At 34 weeks, 717 women out of 918 who were sent the questionnaire responded (78%). At eight weeks post-partum, 572 women out of 894 women who were sent a questionnaire returned it (64%). The questionnaires were used to determine the prevalence of reported symptoms of stress incontinence and the frequency with which the women performed PFME. Maternal and obstetric data were obtained from every participant's medical record. The SPSS PC statistical package was used to determine relationships between PFME and stress incontinence, and to look for any differences between exercisers and non-exercisers. Results Women who performed ante-natal PFME several times per week, or on a daily basis, were less likely to report stress incontinence following delivery in comparison to women who exercised infrequently. Women who did not exercise their pelvic floor muscles were also less likely to report stress incontinence compared to infrequent exercisers. Exercisers were found to differ from non-exercisers with respect to a number of maternal and obstetric variables. Conclusions There appears to be a relationship between ante-natal PFME and post-partum stress incontinence: women who exercise daily or several times per week are significantly less likely to report symptoms of stress incontinence (χ2 = 14.5, df = 1, p = 0.006). This has implications for the provision of instruction in PFME to women during their child-bearing years. The present study was undertaken to investigate whether there is any relationship between ante-natal pelvic floor muscle exercises (PFME) and post-partum stress incontinence. Questionnaires were sent out at 34 weeks of pregnancy, and at eight weeks post-partum, to all women booked in at two hospitals in the North West of England. At 34 weeks, 717 women out of 918 who were sent the questionnaire responded (78%). At eight weeks post-partum, 572 women out of 894 women who were sent a questionnaire returned it (64%). The questionnaires were used to determine the prevalence of reported symptoms of stress incontinence and the frequency with which the women performed PFME. Maternal and obstetric data were obtained from every participant's medical record. The SPSS PC statistical package was used to determine relationships between PFME and stress incontinence, and to look for any differences between exercisers and non-exercisers. Women who performed ante-natal PFME several times per week, or on a daily basis, were less likely to report stress incontinence following delivery in comparison to women who exercised infrequently. Women who did not exercise their pelvic floor muscles were also less likely to report stress incontinence compared to infrequent exercisers. Exercisers were found to differ from non-exercisers with respect to a number of maternal and obstetric variables. There appears to be a relationship between ante-natal PFME and post-partum stress incontinence: women who exercise daily or several times per week are significantly less likely to report symptoms of stress incontinence (χ2 = 14.5, df = 1, p = 0.006). This has implications for the provision of instruction in PFME to women during their child-bearing years.

Fun runs: do they achieve their objectives?

Fun runs are becoming increasingly popular as a means of attempting to attract individuals to participate in exercise. This study evaluated the characteristics of those who compete in such runs. Of a total of 819 runners over two years of the same event, 191 returned completed questionnaires. The results revealed that the vast majority of the runners were aged below 47, more socio-economically advantaged, frequent vigorous exercisers, and participators in previous organised running events. In this particular run, the aim of targeting a large percentage of infrequent exercisers was not achieved. Consequently, the promotional strategies need to be reviewed, or alternative interventions designed.

Mood state changes of women as a function of regular aerobic exercise.

The present study examined mood states of aerobic exercisers before and after completing a 15-wk. program. The subjects (ages 18 to 36 yr.) were 86 women enrolled in activity classes at a large state school in the southeast. Subjects were initially classified according to previous exercise habits. Analysis indicated both groups of frequent and infrequent exercisers were similar in mood states. Participation in regular exercise did not significantly change or enhance the mood states from pretreatment measures. Pretest measures of mood states provided poor prediction of posttest measures, indicating extreme variability in subjects' scores.