Behavior change intervention targeting physical activity and diet improves stress and sleep

Area of Science:

• Behavioral Science
• Public Health
• Chronic Disease Prevention

Background:

• Poor diet, low physical activity, high stress, and poor sleep are common modifiable risk factors for chronic diseases.
• The synergistic effects of interventions targeting diet and activity on other health risk behaviors like stress and sleep are not well-studied.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze secondary data to determine if interventions focused on diet and physical activity lead to indirect improvements in stress and sleep.
• Investigate the collateral benefits of lifestyle interventions on related health behaviors.

Main Methods:

• A randomized clinical trial (Make Better Choices 2) compared a technology-assisted coaching intervention for diet/activity with one for stress/sleep.
• 212 adults with multiple diet and activity risk behaviors participated, reporting on stress, sleep, diet, and activity via smartphone app over 9 months.
• Linear mixed models were used to evaluate outcomes, with the study registered on clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01249989).

Main Results:

• Both interventions significantly reduced average daily stress ratings, with comparable improvements between groups.
• The diet/activity intervention led to a 1.68-point reduction in stress, while the stress/sleep intervention resulted in a 2.08-point reduction on an 11-point scale.
• While both interventions improved sleep duration, the stress/sleep intervention showed statistically larger gains (92.65 minutes) compared to the diet/activity intervention (26.39 minutes).

Conclusions:

• Interventions promoting diet and physical activity changes can effectively improve outcomes in their targeted domains and related behaviors.
• Future research should explore common mechanistic pathways to develop efficient interventions for multiple health behaviors linked to chronic disease.