Real-Time Data Collection to Examine Relations Between Physical Activity and Affect in Adults With Mental Illness
in Journal of Sport and Exercise PsychologyClick name to view affiliation
Adults with serious mental illness engage in limited physical activity, which contributes to significant health disparities. This study explored the use of both ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) and activity trackers in adults with serious mental illness to examine the bidirectional relationship between activity and affect with multilevel modeling. Affective states were assessed up to seven times per day using EMA across 4 days. The participants (n = 20) were equipped with a waist-worn accelerometer to measure moderate to vigorous physical activity. The participants had a mean EMA compliance rate of 88.3%, and over 90% of completed EMAs were matched with 30-min windows of accelerometer wear. The participants who reported more positive affect than others had a higher probability of engaging in moderate to vigorous physical activity. Engaging in more moderate to vigorous physical activity than one’s usual was associated with more negative affect. This study begins to address the effect of momentary mood on physical activity in a population of adults that is typically difficult to reach.
Madden, Redline, Dzubur, Rhoades, and Henwood are with the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, and Lam and Dunton, the Dept. of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. Intille is with the College of Computer and Information Science and Bouvé College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA.
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