Laboratory Model for Relapse to Sedentary Behavior

Physical inactivity is a key risk factor for noncommunicable illnesses such as cancer and cardiovascular disease-the two leading causes of death in West Virginia. The World Health Organization recommends muscle-strengthening activities 2 or more days per week and a minimum of either 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity per week. Yet, only one in five adults in the United States meets these recommendations. Even more alarming is that 33.2% of West Virginians report that they did not engage in any physical activity in the past month. Incentive-based interventions increase physical activity in the short term, but incentives for healthy behavior are generally discontinued after some period of time, and relapse of unhealthy behavior is common. Thus, there is a critical need to develop interventions that result in both immediate and lasting engagement in activity. The overall objective and specific aim of the proposed project is to evaluate a brief laboratory model of relapse into sedentary behavior following incentive-based interventions that is based on Behavioral Momentum Theory. The central hypothesis is that incentives will increase activity, but relapse will occur in the brief model, like what occurs in extended clinical treatment. Development of a laboratory model of relapse into sedentary behavior (the expected outcome of the proposed project) will inform future translational research, eventually leading to clinical applications of large-scale physical-activity interventions that result in significant and immediate behavior change and that minimize relapse.