Current Projects Choosing Physical Activity

Choosing Arthritis-appropriate Physical Activity

Funding Number

ASPH/S3902-27/27

Project Description

Forty-four percent of people with arthritis are sedentary, and many more are insufficiently active. Structured physical activity programs reach only a small propotion of their potential target audience, and audience research has documented that many people with arthritis want the freedom to exercise when and how they prefer. Audience research has also documented many arthritis-specific barriers to physical activity, including fear of pain or making arthritis worse, uncertainty on the amount and type of exercise that are safe for people with arthritis, and unavailability of arthritis specific physical activity programs. The purpose of this project is to develop, implement, and evaluate the efficacy of a brief psycho-educational intervention designed to provide people with arthritis the knowledge, skills, and confidence to select appropriate physical activity, and to modify physical activity as necessary to accommodate their individual and fluctuating disease processes, symptoms, and personal situation.

Project Objectives

• Develop a theoretically-based brief psycho-behavioral educational intervention to increase knowledge, skills, and confidence in selecting arthritis-appropriate physical activity.

• Implement the intervention in an ethnically diverse, low SES community sample of adults with arthritis.

• Conduct process, outcome, and impact evaluations to assess the effect of the intervention on short-and intermediate-term mediating variables and health-related outcomes.

• Develop implementation and instructor training manuals for dissemination to community and public health partners.

• Disseminate project findings to public health partners and relevant stakeholders

Abstracts, Publications, Presentations

None at this time

Principal Investigator

Caroline A. Macera, PhD
San Diego State University
Graduate School of Public Health
cmacera@mail.sdsu.edu

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