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Updated: Jul 23, 2025

Visualization of Intensity Levels to Reduce the Gap Between Self-Reported and Directly Measured Physical Activity
Published on: March 7, 2019
The intention-behaviour gap in physical activity: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the action control
Katharina Feil1, Julian Fritsch2, Ryan E Rhodes3
1Institute of Sports and Sports Science, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany katharina.feil@kit.edu.
Objective:
Intention is the proximal antecedent of physical activity in many popular psychological models. Despite the utility of these models, the discrepancy between intention and actual behaviour, known as the intention-behaviour gap, is a central topic of current basic and applied research. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to quantify intention-behaviour profiles and the intention-behaviour gap.
Design:
Systematic review and meta-analysis.
Data Sources:
Literature search was conducted in June 2022 and updated in February 2023 in five databases.
Eligibility Criteria For Selecting Studies:
Eligible studies included a measure of physical activity, an assessment of physical activity intention and the employment of the intention-behaviour relationship into profile quadrants. Only papers published in the English language and in peer-reviewed journals were considered. Screening was assisted by the artificial intelligence tool ASReview.
Results:
Twenty-five independent samples were selected from 22 articles including a total of N=29 600. Random-effects meta-analysis revealed that 26.0% of all participants were non-intenders not exceeding their intentions, 4.2% were non-intenders who exceeded their intentions, 33.0% were unsuccessful intenders and 38.7% were successful intenders. Based on the proportion of unsuccessful intenders to all intenders, the overall intention-behaviour gap was 47.6%.
Conclusion:
The findings underscore that intention is a necessary, yet insufficient antecedent of physical activity for many. Successful translation of a positive intention into behaviour is nearly at chance. Incorporating mechanisms to overcome the intention-behaviour gap are recommended for clinical practice.
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