Increasing physical activity in patients with mental illness--A randomized controlled trial
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Published on: March 7, 2019
Wiebke Göhner1, Christine Dietsche2, Reinhard Fuchs3
1Department of Health Psychology, Catholic University of Applied Sciences, Freiburg, Germany.
Objective:
The objective of the study was to evaluate whether a motivational-volitional intervention program offered in addition to an existing sport program during stationary treatment is capable of establishing a post-stationary increase in physical activity in persons with mental illness.
Methods:
N=112 in-patients were initially randomly assigned to the control group (CG; standard rehabilitation) or intervention group (IG; standard rehabilitation plus intervention). Assessments were conducted at four measurement points.
Results:
At 6 months follow up, the level of exercise in the IG was 95 min/week higher than in the CG (p=.02). The participants of the IG were able to increase their level of goal intention until 6 months follow up (t2: p=.03; t4: p=.005); levels of self-efficacy of the IG increased during intervention (t2: p=.001). Changes in volitional aspects were significant over time (t1-t3), but not specifically for the IG.
Conclusions:
The intervention was effective at increasing the level of physical activity in patients with mental illness who were initially minimally active.
Practice Implications:
Our results suggest that it could be of great use to place the emphasis of a physical activity-enhancing intervention on its motivational effect since volitional aspects are already taken into sufficient account in standard rehabilitation.
