Easy or difficult? Investigating perceived ease of changing eating and physical activity behaviors

Many people aim to eat healthier or become more physically active, yet often fail. Identifying aspects of behavior that are easier to change is crucial for effective interventions. Two preregistered online studies assessed participants' perceived ease of changing eating and physical activity (PA) behavior and explored potential moderators. Young adults predominantly without (Study 1, N = 435, M_age = 31.6) and older adults predominantly with chronic conditions (Study 2, N = 637, M_age = 57.2) indicated the perceived ease of changing 21 aspects of eating and PA, medical history, social comparison, prior behavior change attempts and current behavior. Young adults found increasing consumption and engaging in high-intensity PA easiest and eating less and spending less time sitting most difficult to change. Older adults found reducing consumption and sedentary behavior easiest, and increasing consumption and walking at least 10.000 steps most difficult to change. Lower unhealthy food consumption correlated with easier reduction, while high PA did not always translate to perceiving further increases in PA easier. Results regarding prior attempts and social comparison were mixed across behaviors and samples. Tailored intervention design should integrate users' perceived easiness to change relevant aspects of the target behavior, which may change based on age.