Effect of Leisure Activity-related Information on Motivational Readiness in Exercise Behavior

Abstract

PURPOSE :The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of leisure activity-related information obtained by mobile phone on motivational readiness among people aged 40-59 who did not intend to do exercise.
METHODS : The study was an interventional study, targeted at the registrants at a Japanese social research company. The respondents were 750 adults in precontemplation (PC) stage regarding stages of change for exercise behavior (aged 40-59) at baseline (T1) , divided between the intervention group (n=215) and the control group (n=535) . The intervention was applied for 8 weeks. The intervention group received 16 messages about leisure activity associated with motivational readiness of exercise behavior among those in PC (Harada and Nakamura, 2009 ; Harada, et al., 2010) . Online questionnaire surveys were conducted in T1 and 8 weeks (T2) . Primary outcome showed stages of change (PC to over contemplation) at T2, compared by x² test.
RESULTS : At T2, while 26.5% moved from PC to over contemplation in the control group, 54.9% of the intervention group moved to over contemplation (p<0.001) .
CONCLUSION : These results indicate that encouraging interests in leisure activity can positively affect improvement of motivational readiness for exercise behavior among those in PC.