Establishing the relevance of psychological determinants regarding physical activity in people with overweight and obesity

Competencies for health-enhancing physical activity are associated with body mass: results of an updated data pooling across 18 samples

OBJECTIVE

Although previous studies have illuminated associations between body mass and physical activity (PA), there have been scant insights regarding the physical, cognitive, and motivational determinants of PA in relationship to body mass. This study aimed to model courses of competencies for health-enhancing PA across the spectrum of BMI.

METHODS

We used cross-sectional data of 3670 individuals (mean [SD]: BMI, 25.54 [5.71] kg/m2; age, 46.11 [14.96] years) from a large data pooling with 18 primary samples employing the PA-related health competence (PAHCO) instrument. ANCOVA determined differences in 10 PAHCO indicators by BMI categories (underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obesity). Covariate-adjusted multilevel models described the nonlinear courses of the PAHCO indicators across the BMI spectrum.

RESULTS

The levels of all 10 PAHCO indicators differed significantly among the BMI categories (F ≥ 14.8; p < 0.001). All competencies for health-enhancing PA could be best described by cubic functions having their maximum around normal weight while regressing with underweight and with increasing grades of obesity (0.02 ≤ R m arg 2 $$ {R}_{\mathrm{marg}}^2 $$  ≤ 0.31).

CONCLUSIONS

This study adds to associations between BMI and PA levels by specifying individuals' multidimensional requirements for health-enhancing PA. The present findings call for an integration of physical, motivational, and cognitive factors in practices of PA promotion and sustainable obesity treatment.

Effectiveness of the 5A Counseling Model-Based Interventions on Physical Activity Indicators in Adults: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND

To identify and appraise the effectiveness of the 5A-counseling-model-based interventions on indicators of physical activity in adults.

METHODS

A systematic review was conducted from systematic searches in Embase, Lilacs, Pubmed, Scielo, Scopus, Sportdiscus and Web of Science, involving studies published from its inception until May 2022. To avoid potential losses, searches also were made in Google Scholar and in reference lists. The assessment of studies, data extraction, and synthesis were carried out independently by two researchers.

RESULTS

Four studies composed the synthesis, which involved people with an average age between 40 and 55 years, most of the samples being women. It was observed that counseling was carried out in conjunction with other strategies, such as drawing up an action plan, sending text messages, and offering educational material. Only one study showed a statistically significant difference between the intervention and control groups in the "daily number of steps" indicator.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on available studies, 5A-counseling-model-based interventions did not reflect significant findings in relation to physical activity. However, given the potential of the model, future studies are recommended with a better description of the strategies, as well as a more robust methodology, to strengthen the evidence.

Testing conditionality with Bourdieu's capital theory: How economic, social, and embodied cultural capital are associated with diet and physical activity in the Netherlands

Although Bourdieu's capital theory emphasized that economic, social, and embodied cultural capital interact to shape health behavior, existing empirical research mainly considered separate associations of the three forms of capital. Our aim was to investigate if and how economic, social, and embodied cultural capital are conditional on each other in their associations with adults' diet and physical activity. Cross-sectional, self-reported data from the 2014 GLOBE survey of 2812 adults aged between 25 and 75 years residing in Eindhoven, the Netherlands were used. Step-wise multiple logistic regression models included economic, social, and embodied cultural capital and adjustment for potential confounders. The models estimated odds ratios of main effects and two-way interactions of the forms of capital with fruit consumption, vegetable consumption, sports participation, and leisure time walking or cycling. In the main effects models, embodied cultural capital was consistently positively associated with all outcomes. Social capital was positively associated with sports participation, fruit consumption, and vegetable consumption, and economic capital was positively associated with sports participation and vegetable consumption. In the two-way interaction models, having specific higher levels of both economic and social capital strengthened their positive association with sports participation. No other combinations of capital were conditional on each other. Economic and social capital were conditional on each other in their association with sports participation, so interventions that provide both economic and social support may be especially effective for increasing this type of physical activity. As its association was strong with all outcomes but not conditional on other forms of capital, embodied cultural capital may operate distinctly from economic and social resources. Policy that takes differences in embodied cultural capital into account or changes to the environment that dampen the importance of embodied cultural resources for health behavior may help improve both diet and physical activity.