The study was designed to determine associations between physical activity (PA) and affect before and during COVID-19 stay-at-home orders and how change in PA predicted change in affect during this time. Before and during COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, college students (n = 107) completed assessments of PA, positive and negative affect, sleep quality, food insecurity, and stressful life events (during stay-at-home order only). Total minutes of PA was positively associated with positive affect before ( B = 0.01, p < 0.01) and during ( B = 0.01, p = 0.01) COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. Change in minutes of PA was positively associated with change in positive affect ( B = 0.01, p = 0.01). Associations between PA and positive affect were not moderated by stressful life events. PA only predicted negative affect before COVID-19 stay-at-home orders ( B = −0.003, p = 0.04). PA appears to enhance positive affect during a global pandemic. Findings have implications for PA as a tool for maintaining or enhancing mental health during a time of trauma and uncertainty.

Background: Research investigating interrelations between physical activity and dietary intake has primarily used retrospective, summary-based measures of behavior subject to increased recall bias. This study used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methods with accelerometry to determine within-day, momentary associations between physical activity and dietary intake behaviors in African American college freshmen. Methods: Participants (N = 50) completed a dietary EMA protocol that assessed food/fluids consumed over the past 2 h at five random times per day and wore an activPAL accelerometer for 7 days to measure physical activity. Physical activity was operationalized as step counts in the 2 h prior to the EMA prompt (matching the EMA recall window). Results: On occasions when participants took more steps than was typical for them in the 2 h prior to the EMA prompt, they were more likely to consume sugar-sweetened beverages (OR = 1.37, p < 0.001), water (OR = 1.28, p < 0.001), fruit (OR = 1.44, p < 0.001), vegetables (OR = 1.19, p = 0.02), and fried fast food (OR = 1.21, p = 0.04) over that same time. Conclusion: Momentary physical activity co-occurred with momentary consumption of both healthy and unhealthy dietary intake. These behavioral interrelations suggest potential implications for obesity risk and multiple health behavior change interventions in young adult African Americans.

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Background Black adults experience higher levels of stress and more dysfunctional sleep patterns compared to their White peers, both of which may contribute to racial disparities in chronic health conditions. Dysfunctional sleep patterns are also more likely in emerging adults compared to other age groups. Daily stress–sleep relations in Black emerging adults are understudied. Purpose This study used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and wrist-worn actigraphy to examine bidirectional associations between daily stress and sleep among Black emerging adults. Methods Black college freshmen (N = 50) completed an EMA protocol (i.e., five EMA prompts/day) and wore an accelerometer for 7 days. The first EMA prompt of each day assessed sleep duration and quality. All EMA prompts assessed stress. Wrist-worn actigraphy assessed nocturnal sleep duration, sleep onset latency, sleep efficiency, and waking after sleep onset. Results At the within-person level, stress experienced on a given day was not associated with any sleep metrics that night (p &gt; .05). On evenings when actigraphy-based sleep duration was shorter (B = −0.02, p = .01) and self-reported sleep quality was poorer (B = −0.12, p = .02) than usual, stress was greater the following day. At the between-person level, negative bidirectional relations existed between stress and actigraphy-based waking after sleep onset (stress predicting sleep: B = −0.35, p = .02; sleep predicting stress: B = −0.27, p = .04). Conclusions Among Black emerging adults, associations between daily sleep and stress vary at the between- and within-person level and are dependent upon the sleep metric assessed. Future research should compare these relations across different measures of stress and different racial/ethnic groups to better understand health disparities.

The purpose of this study was to examine 24 h urinary hydration markers in non-Hispanic White (WH) and non-Hispanic Black (BL) males and females. Thirteen males (BL, n = 6; WH, n = 7) and nineteen females (BL, n = 16, WH, n = 3) (mean ± SD; age, 20 ± 4 y; height, 169.2 ± 12.2 cm; body mass, 71.3 ± 12.2 kg; body fat, 20.8 ± 9.7%) provided a 24 h urine sample across 7 (n = 13) or 3 (n = 19) consecutive days (148 d total) for assessment of urine volume (UVOL), urine osmolality (UOSM), urine specific gravity (USG), and urine color (UCOL). UVOL was significantly lower in BL (0.85 ± 0.43 L) compared to WH college students (2.03 ± 0.70 L) (p < 0.001). Measures of UOSM, USG, and UCOL, were significantly greater in BL (716 ± 263 mOsm∙kg−1, 1.020 ± 0.007, and 4.2 ± 1.4, respectively) compared to WH college students (473 ± 194 mOsm∙kg−1, 1.013 ± 0.006, 3.0 ± 1.2, and respectively) (p < 0.05). Differences in 24 h urinary hydration measures were not significantly different between males and females (p > 0.05) or between the interaction of sex and race/ethnicity (p > 0.05). Non-Hispanic Black men and women were inadequately hydrated compared to their non-Hispanic White counterparts. Our findings suggest that development of targeted strategies to improve habitual fluid intake and potentially overall health are needed.

Background The majority of older adults are physically inactive; therefore, strategies are needed to effectively promote sustained engagement in physical activity. Purpose This study was designed to investigate acute bidirectional relationships between affective and physical feeling states and activity-related behaviors among older adults in the context of everyday life using Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA). Methods Older adults (n = 103, Mage = 72, Range: 60–98) participated in a 10-day study where they completed up to 6 smartphone-based EMA prompts/day. At each EMA prompt, participants reported their current positive and negative affect and physical feeling states. Participants wore an activPAL accelerometer to measure time spent standing and time spent stepping before and after the prompt. Separate multilevel random coefficient linear and logistic regression models examined these bidirectional relationships. Results On occasions when older adults engaged in more standing and more stepping than was typical for them in the 15 and 30 min prior to the EMA prompt, they tended to report greater feelings of energy at the prompt. On occasions when older adults reported greater feelings of energy than was typical for them, they engaged in more standing and more stepping in the 15 and 30 min following the EMA prompt. Positive and negative affect was unrelated to activity-related behaviors. Conclusions Feelings of energy appear to be strongly linked to activity-related behaviors in older adults; however, this was not the case for positive or negative affect. These findings may have implications for optimal delivery of just-in-time intervention context based on affective states or current behaviors.

Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) is a methodological tool that can provide novel insights into the prediction and modeling of physical behavior; however, EMA has not been used to study physical activity (PA) or sedentary behavior (SB) among racial minority older adults. This study aimed to determine the feasibility and validity of an EMA protocol to assess racial minority older adults’ PA and SB. For 8 days, older adults (n = 91; 89% African American; 70% earning <$20,000/year) received six randomly prompted, smartphone-based EMA questionnaires per day and wore an activPAL monitor to measure PA and SB. The PA and SB were also self-reported through EMA. Participants were compliant with the EMA protocol on 92.4% of occasions. Participants were more likely to miss an EMA prompt in the afternoon compared to morning and on weekend days compared to weekdays. Participants were less likely to miss an EMA prompt when engaged in more device-based SB in the 30 min around the prompt. When participants self-reported PA, they engaged in less device-based PA in the 15 min after compared to the 15 min before the EMA prompt, suggesting possible reactance or disruption of PA. EMA-reported PA and SB were positively associated with device-based PA and SB in the 30 min around the EMA prompt, supporting criterion validity. Overall, the assessment of low-income, African American older adults’ PA and SB through EMA is feasible and valid, though physical behaviors may influence compliance and prompting may create reactivity.

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