Tracking of voluntary exercise behaviour over the lifespan

Area of Science:

• Behavioral Science
• Exercise Science
• Lifespan Psychology

Background:

• Physical activity interventions aim to foster lifelong exercise habits.
• Previous studies treated exercise as a uniform construct, overlooking domain-specific tracking.
• This study examines tracking across different exercise domains (team vs. solitary, competitive vs. non-competitive, externally vs. internally paced).

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the tracking (stability) of leisure-time exercise behavior across the lifespan.
• To determine if tracking differs across various domains of physical activity.
• To identify which exercise domains best predict long-term exercise volume.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a large dataset (N=43,889) from the Netherlands Twin Register (NTR).
• Analyzed tracking as a function of baseline age (8-80 years) and follow-up duration (2-22 years).
• Employed generalized estimating equations to account for sex differences.

Main Results:

• Tracking coefficients for total exercise volume were moderate to high (median .57 for 2-year follow-up, .38 for 22-year).
• Tracking patterns were largely domain-independent and similar across activity types.
• Tracking generally increased with baseline age, except for team-based activities.

Conclusions:

• Exercise behavior demonstrates moderate to high stability across the lifespan, akin to personality traits in adulthood.
• Established exercise habits are resistant to change, reinforcing the long-term impact of successful interventions.
• Interventions that successfully promote exercise adoption are likely to result in lasting habits.