Validity of stage assessment in the adoption and maintenance of physical activity and fruit and vegetable consumption.

Abstract

Objective-Stage assessments are examined to develop and test refined measurements that can be used for classifying individuals.Design-Stages were assessed in 1,850 persons in terms of their physical activity and dietary behaviors.Main Outcome Measures-Stages for both behaviors were compared to behavior and other test variables. Misclassification, sensitivity, specificity, receiver-operation-curves, and discontinuity patterns were computed. Discontinuity patterns were tested with trends across stages and planned contrasts between adjacent stages.Results-In comparison to previous studies, sensitivity (70% to 80%) and specificity (80% to 87%) were high. When using lower level criteria (such as less intensive activity), sensitivity was lower, whereas specificity was higher. When behavioral maintenance was assessed, results suggested that the temporal cut-off point between action and maintenance was equally optimal at different cut-off points. Applying contrast analyses, nonlinear trends across the stages and a match of 87% of predictions of stage differences resulted. Conclusion-Stageassumptions are supported in general, and refined stage assessment in particular. Levels of psychological variables (e.g., easiness, habit) may discriminate stages as well as or even better than temporal stage definitions. Keywords stages; misclassification; specificity; sensitivity; health behavior Behavior change toward a particular goal (such as smoking cessation) can be understood either as a continuous process or as a series of distinct stages that represent an ordered set of categories into which people can be classified. These categories reflect cognitive or behavioral characteristics, such as the motivation to perform a behavior or the habit of doing so for an

Direct effects of a domain-specific subjective age measure on self-reported physical activity – Is it more important how old you are or how old you feel?

“…Physical activity was assessed by asking how often (1 = less than 1 time a week for 30 minutes, 2 = at least 1 time a week for 30 minutes or more, 3 = at least 3 times a week for 30 minutes or more, 4 = at least 5 times a week for 30 minutes or more) within the last month the person had been active in terms of physical fitness (e.g., going to the fitness studio), active commuting (e.g., taking the bicycle instead of the bus or car) and physical activities in daily life (e.g., gardening). All three indicators correlated significantly at p < .010 and were aggregated to represent the broadness of the construct (discriminant validity; Lippke et al, 2009).…”

“…Participants used the response set 1 = totally disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = agree, 4 = totally agree for each item. This scale was aggregated including all intensities to obtain an index that reflects the broadness of the construct (discriminant validity; Lippke, Ziegelmann, Schwarzer, & Velicer, 2009).…”

Bewegungsorientierte Gesundheitsförderung an Hochschulen

“…Zur Erfassung des psychologischen Stadiums für körperliche Aktivität wurde ein validierter Stadienalgorithmus von Lippke et al (2009) verwendet. Die Teilnehmenden wurden gefragt, ob sie sich im vergangenen Monat an mindestens fünf Tagen pro Woche 30 Minuten oder länger (oder mehr als 2,5 Stunden in der Woche) intensiv bewegt hatten.…”

Investigating and Promoting the Decision towards Signing an Organ Donation Card

“…According to the HAPA, psychological stages are identified using the following criteria [7] [9]. Those participants who had neither signed an organ donor card, nor thought about it, were categorized as non-intenders.…”