Mechanisms of Exercise Maintenance and the Effects of Depression

说明(申请人提供)：参加有规律的体力活动已被证明能提供相当大的心理和身体健康益处，包括预防和治疗抑郁症，并降低个人总体死亡、心血管疾病和癌症的风险。然而，只有不到50%的美国成年人进行符合卫生局局长建议的体力活动，近16%的人完全久坐不动。运动干预限制了长期的成功，以至于开始新运动计划的人中有一半在6个月内退出。关于锻炼行为的理论观点无法可靠地预测从意图到锻炼的行为，这被称为“意图-行为差距”，这一现象很可能表现为缺乏长期的锻炼维持。有证据表明，运动是治疗抑郁症的有效单一疗法和辅助疗法，这表明，长期保持运动养生法不仅有助于抑郁症的一级预防，还有助于二级预防和降低复发风险。结合计划行为理论的关键结构和自我决定理论描述的调节过程和动机类型，本应用程序提出了一个理论模型，有可能更好地预测运动维持，并帮助解释意图-行为差距。这些建议的机制适用于临床和非临床人群的程度可能有助于开发更有效的运动干预措施。在目前的研究中，将提出一个运动维持的综合模型并进行测试(具体目标1)。具体目标#2和#3涉及探索每天独特的锻炼尝试的成功或失败对模型构建的时间稳定性的影响程度，并通过更好地解释意图-行为差距来测试时间稳定性预测长期维持的能力(具体目标#2和#3)。具体目标#4认为抑郁症状和抑郁是这些影响的潜在调节因素。研究1将在大学新生群体中调查这些目标，这是一个体力活动减少和体重增加的风险群体。研究2(具体目标5)将使用成年人的社区样本来探索该模型的外部效度。这项申请与公众健康利益相关，因为它对久坐不动和不经常运动的人群的体力活动增加有影响，包括那些有可能在很小的时候就养成不良运动习惯的人(大学生)和那些有可能出现健康差距的人(社区卫生机构的个人)。归根结底，这项工作有可能降低多种不良健康后果的风险，包括抑郁症和心脏病。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Participation in regular physical activity has been shown to provide considerable mental and physical health benefits, including the prevention and treatment of depression and the reduction of an individual's risk of overall mortality, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. However, less than 50 percent of U.S. adults engage in physical activity consistent with the surgeon general's recommendations, and nearly 16 percent are completely sedentary. Exercise interventions have limited long-term success, such that half of individuals starting a new exercise program quit within 6 months. The inability of theoretical perspectives on exercise behavior to reliably predict behavior from intentions to exercise has been termed the "intention-behavior gap", a phenomenon that likely is manifest in lack of long-term maintenance of exercise. Evidence that exercise serves as effective mono therapy and adjunctive therapy for depression suggests that long-term maintenance of an exercise regimen may aid in not only the primary prevention of depression, but also in secondary prevention and reduced risk of relapse. Integrating key constructs from the Theory of Planned Behavior and regulatory processes and types of motivation described by Self-Determination Theory, this application proposes a theoretical model with the potential to better predict exercise maintenance and to help explain the intention-behavior gap. The degree to which these proposed mechanisms apply to both clinical and non-clinical populations may aid in the development of more effective exercise interventions. In the current research, an integrated model of exercise maintenance will be proposed and tested (Specific Aim #1). Specific Aims #2 and #3 involve an exploration of the extent to which daily success or failure with unique attempts at exercise influences the temporal stability of model constructs, and testing the ability of temporal stability to predict long-term maintenance via a better explanation of the intention- behavior gap (Specific Aims #2 and #3). Specific Aim #4 considers depressive symptoms and depression as potential moderators of these effects. Study 1 will investigate these aims in a college freshman population, a group at risk for decreased physical activity and weight gain. Study 2 (Specific Aim #5) will use a community sample of adults to explore the external validity of the model. This application is relevant to the interests of public health because of its implications for increased physical activity in sedentary and inconsistently active populations, including those at risk for developing poor exercise habits at an early age (college students) and those at risk for health disparities (individuals in community health settings). Ultimately, this work has the potential for reducing risk of multiple poor health outcomes, including depression and heart disease.