Increasing Physical Exercise through Action and Coping Planning

The intention-behaviour gap has been a barrier to health behavioural change. A total of 85 participants (aged 18–56 years) were recruited for a study that examined how two types of planning (Action and Coping) could bridge the intention-behaviour gap and increase physical exercise behaviours. The on...

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Autores principales: Wee, Zhi Qiang Clement, Dillon, Denise
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8997544/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35409564
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19073883
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author Wee, Zhi Qiang Clement
Dillon, Denise
author_facet Wee, Zhi Qiang Clement
Dillon, Denise
author_sort Wee, Zhi Qiang Clement
collection PubMed
description The intention-behaviour gap has been a barrier to health behavioural change. A total of 85 participants (aged 18–56 years) were recruited for a study that examined how two types of planning (Action and Coping) could bridge the intention-behaviour gap and increase physical exercise behaviours. The online study took place over two weeks, with participants completing pre- and post- measures of past exercise habits, intentions to exercise, subsequent physical exercise behaviours, intrinsic motivation levels, and engagement in action and coping planning. A hierarchical regression analysis showed that intentions, past exercise habits and action planning were significant predictors of change in physical exercise behaviours. Positive correlations were observed between participants’ past habits and their exercise behaviours during the study. 71.8% of participants met the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommended guidelines for physical activity at the end of the study compared to the initial 58.8%, which evidences a significant increase in participant physical exercise behaviours. Our findings revealed that while intentions are important predictors for behavioural change, cultivating habits to engage in regular exercise seems to outweigh the significance of intentions. Moreover, action planning could be a helpful intervention to bridge the intention-behaviour gap to increase overall physical exercise behaviours. In the long-term, this would improve an individual’s mental and physical wellbeing and potentially alleviate the costly burden on public health services.
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spelling pubmed-89975442022-04-12 Increasing Physical Exercise through Action and Coping Planning Wee, Zhi Qiang Clement Dillon, Denise Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The intention-behaviour gap has been a barrier to health behavioural change. A total of 85 participants (aged 18–56 years) were recruited for a study that examined how two types of planning (Action and Coping) could bridge the intention-behaviour gap and increase physical exercise behaviours. The online study took place over two weeks, with participants completing pre- and post- measures of past exercise habits, intentions to exercise, subsequent physical exercise behaviours, intrinsic motivation levels, and engagement in action and coping planning. A hierarchical regression analysis showed that intentions, past exercise habits and action planning were significant predictors of change in physical exercise behaviours. Positive correlations were observed between participants’ past habits and their exercise behaviours during the study. 71.8% of participants met the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommended guidelines for physical activity at the end of the study compared to the initial 58.8%, which evidences a significant increase in participant physical exercise behaviours. Our findings revealed that while intentions are important predictors for behavioural change, cultivating habits to engage in regular exercise seems to outweigh the significance of intentions. Moreover, action planning could be a helpful intervention to bridge the intention-behaviour gap to increase overall physical exercise behaviours. In the long-term, this would improve an individual’s mental and physical wellbeing and potentially alleviate the costly burden on public health services. MDPI 2022-03-24 /pmc/articles/PMC8997544/ /pubmed/35409564 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19073883 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Wee, Zhi Qiang Clement
Dillon, Denise
Increasing Physical Exercise through Action and Coping Planning
title Increasing Physical Exercise through Action and Coping Planning
title_full Increasing Physical Exercise through Action and Coping Planning
title_fullStr Increasing Physical Exercise through Action and Coping Planning
title_full_unstemmed Increasing Physical Exercise through Action and Coping Planning
title_short Increasing Physical Exercise through Action and Coping Planning
title_sort increasing physical exercise through action and coping planning
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8997544/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35409564
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19073883
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