Biomedical subjects

K C Heesch

Publications and source records attributed to K C Heesch.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Using Rasch modeling to re-evaluate three scales related to physical activity: enjoyment, perceived benefits and perceived barriers.

Studies suggest that enjoyment, perceived benefits and perceived barriers may be important mediators of physical activity. However, the psychometric properties of these scales have not been assessed using Rasch modeling. The purpose of this study was to use Rasch modeling to evaluate the properties of three scales commonly used in physical activity studies: the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale, the Benefits of Physical Activity Scale and the Barriers to Physical Activity Scale. The scales were administered to 378 healthy adults, aged 25-75 years (50% women, 62% Whites), at the baseline assessment for a lifestyle physical activity intervention trial. The ConQuest software was used to assess model fit, item difficulty, item functioning and standard error of measurement. For all scales, the partial credit model fit the data. Item content of one scale did not adequately cover all respondents. Response options of each scale were not targeting respondents appropriately, and standard error of measurement varied across the total score continuum of each scale. These findings indicate that each scale's effectiveness at detecting differences among individuals may be limited unless changes in scale content and response format are made.

Evaluation Studies as Topic↗

PubMed2003

Does adherence to a lifestyle physical activity intervention predict changes in physical activity?

This study examined whether adherence to a lifestyle physical activity intervention predicted weekly participation in at least 150 min of moderate to vigorous physical activity among 244 sedentary healthy adults. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the association between adherence and physical activity. Markers of adherence were attendance, homework completion, and self-monitoring for a group-based intervention and telephone call completion, homework completion, and self-monitoring for a telephone and mail-delivered intervention. For both interventions, adherence significantly predicted moderate to vigorous physical activity. Adherence to lifestyle physical activity interventions ought to be encouraged to increase the likelihood that participants will engage in an adequate amount of physical activity for health benefits to occur.

Adult↗

PubMed2001

Field evaluation of energy expenditure from continuous and intermittent walking in women.

RATIONALE: Recent physical activity recommendations suggest that comparable amounts of prescribed physical activity, done as a single continuous bout or as a set of intermittent bouts, will produce equal amounts of energy expenditure (EE) during the prescribed activity as well as throughout the day. HYPOTHESES: In a field setting, we tested two hypotheses: (1) continuous and intermittent walking conditions will result in significantly greater total daily EE than a control condition, and (2) continuous and intermittent walking conditions will result in similar total daily METHODS: Thirty women (mean age [yr] = 43.7+/-5.8; mean body mass index [kg x m(-2)]= 24.7+/-4.0) participated in a repeated-measures design so that each woman participated in three walking conditions on successive days of the week: a single 30-min brisk walk (continuous): three 10-min brisk walks (intermittent); and no activity (control). Throughout the study protocol, women wore a TRITRAC-R3D accelerometer programmed to estimate EE in 2-min intervals. RESULTS: Mean total EE estimates (kcal) for the three walking conditions were as follows: continuous: 2181+/-308; intermittent: 2121+/-305; and control: 1948+/-270. A repeated-measures analysis of variance omnibus test indicated that EE differed significantly by experimental condition [F(2,58) = 40.2, P < 0.001). To test the first hypothesis, contrasts were examined revealing that EE in the continuous and intermittent conditions was significantly greater than EE in the control condition [F(1,29) = 58.2, P < 0.001]. To test the second hypothesis, contrasts revealed that EE in the continuous condition was significantly greater than EE in the intermittent condition [F(1,29) = 7.0, P = 0.013]. CONCLUSION: For the purposes of total EE, selecting a continuous mode of walking may offer additional benefit over an intermittent mode, given the same total prescribed duration.

Adult↗

PubMed2000

Perceptions of sedentary African-American women about continuous versus intermittent walking.

To meet current physical activity recommendations, a person may chose to adopt a continuous or an intermittent physical activity program, as long as they accumulate 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity most days of the week. Sixty-four sedentary African-American women were surveyed to assess whether perceptions about continuous and intermittent walking programs differed. Specifically, we assessed whether perceptions of self-efficacy, outcome expectations, social support, and the environment varied with respect to walking programs. Results indicated that the women perceived higher self-efficacy for the intermittent walking program and associated this program with more favorable environmental factors (p < .05). However, they expected greater benefits from the continuous walking program (p < .05). Overall, 65% of the women reported that they would prefer to adopt the continuous walking program.

Adult↗

PubMed2000

Perceived barriers to exercise and stage of exercise adoption in older women of different racial/ethnic groups.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether barriers to exercise differ among racial/ethnic groups at the same stage of exercise adoption and adjacent stages within racial/ethnic groups. Questions about stage of exercise adoption and perceived barriers to exercise were administered to a cross sectional sample of 745 African American, 660 Hispanic, 738 Native American/Native Alaskan, and 769 Caucasian U.S. women aged 40 years and older. Correlations between rankings of barriers among racial/ethnic groups within the same stage ranged from .43 to .89. For each racial/ethnic group, significant differences existed between adjacent stages in the percentage of women reporting barriers to interfere with exercise (p < .10). Barriers were not similar enough among racial/ethnic groups to recommend that the same barriers be addressed for all races/ethnicities.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

Detecting bouts of physical activity in a field setting.

The purposes of this study were to assess the TRITRAC and CSA for: (a) interaccelerometer agreement; (b) agreement in detecting patterns of moderate-intensity physical activity; and (c) agreement in detecting walking patterns recorded in a diary. Thirty-one women wore both the TRITRAC and CSA accelerometers for three consecutive days. Interaccelerometer agreement (measured with generalizability coefficients) ranged from .88 to .99. In total, 71.3% of the accelerometers' patterns agreed in length, with CSA patterns being on average significantly longer. Interaccelerometer agreement in detecting patterns of brisk walking, as recorded in a diary, was comparable (69.4%). Interaccelerometer discrepancies may be related in part to the threshold employed by each instrument for classifying moderate intensity patterns.

Adult↗