A phone and text message intervention to improve physical activity in midlife: initial feasibility testing

Area of Science:

• Behavioral Science
• Public Health
• Gerontology

Background:

• Midlife physical activity is crucial for preventing chronic diseases.
• Low psychological well-being and high stress impede physical activity in midlife adults.
• There is a need for scalable interventions tailored to midlife adults to promote physical activity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the feasibility and acceptability of a novel, midlife-adapted, phone- and text-based intervention.
• To evaluate the intervention's impact on accelerometer-measured physical activity and self-reported outcomes.
• To explore the potential of positive psychology (PP) and motivational interviewing (MI) in a midlife context.

Main Methods:

• A 12-week, single-arm trial involving phone sessions, text message support, and between-session activities.
• Feasibility assessed by session completion rates; acceptability by participant ratings.
• Outcomes analyzed using mixed-effects regression models for physical activity, psychological, and functional measures.

Main Results:

• The intervention demonstrated high feasibility (76.8% session completion) and acceptability (mean rating 8.9/10).
• Participants showed medium to large effect size improvements in physical activity, psychological well-being, and function.
• The program successfully engaged midlife adults with low baseline physical activity.

Conclusions:

• A midlife-specific, phone- and text-based PP-MI intervention is feasible and acceptable.
• The intervention shows promising effects on physical activity and other relevant outcomes.
• Further testing via a randomized controlled trial is warranted to confirm efficacy.