Increasing Health Behaviors and Psychological Measures with an Adapted Version of the ACCELERATION Program

Recent evidence highlights the importance of interventions tackling physical inactivity and unhealthy eating in lower-income countries. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the Canadian ACCELERATION lifestyle program adapted to Brazilians. The main outcomes of the study were changes in the engagement in weekly moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and in the daily consumption of fruits/vegetables.

The adapted intervention consisted of a 12-week quasi-randomized controlled trial delivered through email. The data from the original Canadian experimental group (CE, n = 194) and the two groups of Portuguese-speaking Brazilians living in Canada in the adapted program - Brazilian experimental (BE, n = 41) and Brazilian control (BC, n = 35) - were assessed at baseline and post-intervention. The data of the 270 participants were analyzed using two-way repeated measures factorial ANCOVA (group x time) for ratio variables and Chi-square and McNemar tests for the categorical variables.

The BE group had a significant increase in MVPA (mean difference, 95% CI: 86.3, 38.1-134.4 min/week) and fruits/vegetables intake (3.2, 1.4-5.1 servings/day) after the intervention (both p < 0.001). The proportion of participants engaging in ≥ 150 min of MVPA increased from 4.9% to 73.2%, while adoption of a healthy diet increased from 4.9% to 53.7% in the BE group (both p < 0.001). The CE group also improved on these variables (p < 0.05) with no difference vs the BE group (p > 0.05), whereas BC did not show changes (p > 0.05).

The Brazilian version of the ACCELERATION program effectively promoted positive health behavior changes in its participants and has the potential to contribute to the fight against risk factors for chronic diseases in Brazilians.