ClinicalTrials.gg
CompletedNCT03415542Updated Aug 15, 2019

A Comparison of Exercise Beliefs to Same-day Exercise Behavior

An interventional study of Exercise Promotion in Exercise, sponsored by Brown University. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 65 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2019-08-15.

Primary conditionBehaviorRegistry: Motor ActivityReclassifiedWhy we changed it
Registry
Motor Activity — the first condition term the registry derived for this study.
ClinicalTrials.gg
Behavior
Why
  1. Motor Activity is a broad heading, used only when no more specific condition is named.
  2. The study's title name Behavior.
Confidence
High: the new condition is named in the study's own title. Of 46 hand-checked studies reclassified this way, 72% were exactly right and 89% in the right disease family; the registry's first term was right for 4% (measured 2026-10-21). How we classify →
Wrong?
Tell us the study's main condition →

Sponsored by Brown University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Basic science

From the registry’s dates

  • Registered 1 year 6 months after the study started (first participant enrolled May 2016, registered Dec 2017).
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
50
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
18 Years to 65 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Regular aerobic exercise is associated with reduced risk of multiple cancers, yet the majority of adults are inactive. Across health behavior theories, the expectations people have about the outcomes of exercise influence their decision to exercise. Extending prior work, a fine-grained analysis of the relationship between perceived outcomes and daily exercise behavior will be achieved using ecological momentary assessment methods to measure perceived outcomes, and accelerometry to measure exercise objectively. The results of this research will inform exercise promotion efforts by determining how perceptions and temporal factors interact to predict exercise behavior.

Read the detailed description

There is strong evidence for an association between regular physical activity and reduced risk for cancers of the breast and colon. The majority of adults do not engage in enough physical activity. Motivating adults to exercise is critical to cancer prevention efforts. However, additional work is needed to improve the theoretical frameworks applied to exercise promotion. The most often cited theories of health promotion include the outcomes of a target behavior as important determinants. The perceptions people have about the outcomes of exercise, and more generally attitudes about exercise, are associated with exercise participation. Conceptualizations of perceived outcomes are categorized by whether they are instrumental (i.e. utility-based) or affective (i.e. feeling-based) in nature. Recent efforts to compare the relative predictive power of instrumental and affective attitudes suggest that affective attitudes may better predict exercise behavior. Aim 1 of this proposal seeks to compare the relative influence of instrumental versus affective attitudes on exercise behavior. Another distinction can be made between perceptions that are held temporally proximal versus distal to exercise behavior. In the vast majority of relevant research in the exercise field, perceptions are assessed and then future exercise behavior is assessed months later via self-report. However, day to day perceptions and exercise behavior is largely unknown. The temporal distance of perceptions from the decision to exercise can be significantly shortened using ecological momentary assessments. Aim 2 of this proposal seeks to compare the relative predictive power of temporally distal versus proximal perceptions on exercise behavior. Finally, aim 3 will examine the interaction between instrumental/affective and temporally proximal/distal attitudes for predicting exercise behavior. The proposed research seeks to contribute to cancer prevention efforts by examining underlying perceptions that motivate the day to day decision to exercise. In particular, technological advances in mobile platforms to deliver interventions to people wherever they are requires better support for how to apply these methods. Using theory-based, empirically supported concepts, this longitudinal study will follow previously inactive adults over 12 weeks using electronic diaries to measure their perceptions and exercise behavior change while they receive an exercise intervention. This study will provide a fine-grained examination of the determinants of exercise targeted in exercise promotion interventions. The results will inform future efforts to promote exercise using mobile technologies by determining what types of beliefs (instrumental/affective) and what times (temporal proximity to behavior) are most critical times to intervene.

02

Conditions studied

  • Exercise

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Keywords

  • Attitudes
  • Ecological momentary assessment
03

In context

Behavior Reclassified

1,573 studies on the registry are indexed under Behavior; 313 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 50 is below the median of 120 across 1,197 interventional studies indexed under Behavior.

Browse Behavior studies →

Lead sponsor

Brown University is the lead sponsor of 290 studies on the registry; 40 are open to participants now.

Of its 26 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 19 (73%) have results posted.

Compared within Behavior, this study's primary condition as ClinicalTrials.gg classifies it; the registry's first condition term is Motor Activity. The counts are of registry records indexed under each term, refreshed daily. How we classify →

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 65 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Generally healthy, inactive adults 18-65

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Chronic diseases, recent hospitalization for mental health problems, binge drinking, physical limitations that would make exercise unsafe
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Basic science
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
50 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Other
    Exercise Intervention

    Participants receive a print-based exercise promotion program across 12 weeks and are asked to monitor their exercise behavior using an app on their cell phone.

    Behavioral: Exercise Promotion

Interventions

  • BehavioralExercise Promotion

    Evidence-based techniques (goal-setting, reduced barriers) for increasing exercise behavior

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Exercise behavior

    Examine the association between attitudes and exercise behavior defined by the time of the start and end of each exercise session

    Time frame: 1 day

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Brown University
    Providence, Rhode Island 02906, United States
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No — Upon request, data may be shared with other researchers

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reachedSimilar studies: half by the dot; the band is the middle halfHalf of similar studies reached it by the dot; the band is the middle half, from a quarter to three quarters

Ran from May 2016 to primary completion in Jan 2019, 31 months.

Of 741 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Behavior, half reached primary completion within 14 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 5 and three quarters within 32. This study's 31 months is above that.

Counting every sponsor, half of 757 studies reached it within 13 months; a quarter within 5 and three quarters within 32.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Dec 6, 2017
First posted
Jan 30, 2018
StartActual
May 23, 2016
Primary completionActual
Jan 1, 2019
CompletionActual
Jan 1, 2019
Last update
Aug 15, 2019
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Aug 15, 2019, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03415542
Lead sponsor
Brown University
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Jan 30, 2018
Start date
May 23, 2016
Primary completion
Jan 1, 2019
Completion
Jan 1, 2019
Last update
Aug 15, 2019

Study contacts

Jessica A Emerson, MS
principal investigator · Brown University

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Aug 2019. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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