In this six-week behavioral intervention, sedentary older adults will receive daily health messaging via their smart phone to better understand their daily activities and emotions. Participants undergo structural and functional brain imaging before and after the intervention along with measures of their behavioral, emotional and thinking functions.
This project will obtain data on the effects of a six week intervention designed to increase subjects' motivation to increase their physical activity. Subjects will be randomized into two different conditions to examine the efficacy of self-affirmation + positive messaging versus a control group that receives negative messaging only on changes in physical activity. We will also examine whether any differential physical activity or structured exercise engendered in the two groups is maintained at 3 months post-intervention. Secondary outcome measures will include a battery of cognitive, psychosocial, and neuroimaging measures that are designed to explicate the mechanisms that underlie motivation effects for physical activity in sedentary older adults.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
40
Motivational messaging delivered during a functional brain MRI scan and with daily messaging
Control messaging delivered during a functional brain MRI scan and with daily messaging
Northeastern University
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Change in Sedentary Behavior (Average Hour/Day)
This metric quantifies the change in the average amount of time spent sedentary each day in hours, from the baseline period to the 6-week follow-up period. It is a marker of time spent inactive.
Time frame: Baseline; 6-week
Change in Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activity
This measure focuses on the change in average moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) daily minutes after the intervention compared to the pre-intervention average MVPA baseline.
Time frame: Baseline; 6-week
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