Independent Effects of Ideal Body Image Valuation and Delay Discounting on Proximal and Typical Levels of Physical Activity

Delay discounting is associated with addiction and mental health measures while controlling for health behaviors and health barriers in a large US sample

Background

Excessive discounting of future rewards [delay discounting (DD)] may be a transdiagnostic process and treatment target underlying behavioral health outcomes, including trauma, depression, anxiety, and problematic substance use. However, multiple health behaviors and barriers are also related to these outcomes, including social media usage, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), sleep quality, healthcare access, housing status, and exercise. To extend research examining DD as transdiagnostic process, we recruited a large, heterogenous sample to examine the association between DD, problematic substance use, and mental health outcomes while controlling for certain health behaviors and health barriers.

Method

In a cross-sectional online survey of 3992 US residents, we administered validated measures of PTSD, depression, anxiety, and problematic alcohol, stimulant, and opioid use. Using linear or ordinal logistic models, scores for each outcome were regressed onto DD while controlling for demographics, health behaviors, and health barriers.

Results

Including only DD and demographics, DD was associated with each outcome at low effect sizes (ƒ2 = .013, OR range = 1.08-1.16). Except for opioid ASSIST scores, these relationships held when controlling for social media usage, sleep, housing status, healthcare access, ACEs, physical exercise, and demographic variables (ƒ2 = .002, OR range = 1.03-1.12), increasing confidence that DD concurrently and directly relates to four of these five clinical outcomes.

Discussion

These findings support the conceptualization of DD as a transdiagnostic process underlying certain psychopathologies and suggest targeting DD in co-occurring substance use disorder and/or mental health treatments may result in clinically significant outcomes.

Applied Quantitative Analysis of Behavior: What It Is, and Why We Care-Introduction to the Special Section

Science evolves from prior approximations of its current form. Interest in changes in species over time was not a new concept when Darwin made his famous voyage to the Galapagos Islands; concern with speciation stretches back throughout the history of modern thought. Behavioral science also does and must evolve. Such change can be difficult, but it can also yield great dividends. The focus of the current special section is on a common mutation that appears to have emerged across these areas and the critical features that define an emerging research area-applied quantitative analysis of behavior (AQAB). In this introduction to the "Special Issue on Applications of Quantitative Methods," we will outline some of the common characteristics of research in this area, an exercise that will surely be outdated as the research area continues to progress. In doing so, we also describe how AQAB is relevant to theory, behavioral pharmacology, applied behavior analysis, and health behaviors. Finally, we provide a summary for the articles that appear in this special issue. The authors of these papers are all thinking outside the Skinner box, creating new tools and approaches, and testing them against relevant data. If we can keep up this evolution of methods and ideas, behavior analysis will regain its place at the head of the table!

Increasing Physical Activity among Breast Cancer Survivors by Modulating Temporal Orientation with rTMS: Feasibility and Potential Efficacy

Maintaining adequate amounts of physical activity is a critical component of survivorship care for women with breast cancer. Increased physical activity is associated with increases in well-being, quality of life, and longevity, but women with cancer face unique, cancer-related factors that might affect physical activity. Consistent with the Competing Neurobehavioral Decision Systems model of decision making, we proposed to decrease delay discounting and increase physical activity by stimulating the executive function system via high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (HF rTMS) of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (LDLPFC). This randomized, sham-controlled, double-blinded trial examined the feasibility and potential efficacy of this approach to increase physical activity in breast cancer survivors. We hypothesized that active rTMS would significantly increase the mean number of steps per day and decrease delay discounting. Participants (n = 30) were primarily middle-aged (M = 53.7, SD = 7.9) and white with a mean BMI and body mass indices below 40. Indicators of feasibility and limited efficacy testing were positive. Although repeated-measures ANOVA revealed no significant changes in delay discounting, generalized estimating equations (GEE) found that participants in the active condition increased their mean daily steps by 400 steps per day, while those in the sham condition decreased this by nearly 600 steps per day. These findings indicate that the continued investigation of HF rTMS for increasing physical activity among women with breast cancer is justified.

Temporal discounting as a candidate behavioral marker of obesity

Although obesity is a result of processes operating at multiple levels, most forms result from decision-making behavior. The aim of this review was to examine the candidacy of temporal discounting (TD) (i.e. the reduction in the value of a reinforcer as a function of the delay to its receipt) as a behavioral marker of obesity. For this purpose, we assessed whether TD has the ability to: identify risk for obesity development, diagnose obesity, track obesity progression, predict treatment prognosis/outcomes, and measure treatment effectiveness. Three databases (Pubmed, PsycINFO, and Web of Science) were searched using a combination of terms related to TD and obesity. A total of 153 papers were reviewed. Several areas show strong evidence of TD's predictive utility as a behavioral marker of obesity (e.g., distinguishing obese from non obese). However, other areas have limited and/or mixed evidence (e.g., predicting weight change). Given the positive relationship for TD in the majority of domains examined, further consideration for TD as a behavioral marker of obesity is warranted.