Physical Activity Levels and Social Cognitive Theory Correlates among Adults with Crohn’s Disease: Preliminary Results from a Cross-Sectional Analysis

Whitney N. Neal (), Dorothy Pekmezi and Robert W. Motl
Additional contact information
Whitney N. Neal: Department of Health Behavior, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA
Dorothy Pekmezi: Department of Health Behavior, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA
Robert W. Motl: Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 61820, USA

IJERPH, 2024, vol. 21, issue 4, 1-11

Abstract: There is increasing research and clinical interest in physical activity (PA) as an adjuvant therapy for improving health outcomes among persons with Crohn’s disease. To date, little is known regarding PA behavior and its cognitive and behavioral correlates in Crohn’s disease. Thus, we assessed self-reported PA and its social cognitive theory (SCT) correlates in a sample of persons with Crohn’s disease. Data on demographic and clinical characteristics, disease activity, leisure-time PA, and SCT variables were collected from 30 participants with Crohn’s disease (90% White, 60% female) through an online survey. SCT variables assessed included exercise self-efficacy, social support, outcome expectations, goal setting, and planning. Analyses involved comparing PA levels and SCT survey scores using independent sample t -tests and non-parametric bivariate correlations. The majority of participants were in clinical remission (60%) and over half (57%) were classified as physically active, yet the mean PA level was lower than normative values for adults. Females ( n = 18) and participants who reported previous surgery for Crohn’s disease ( n = 18) were almost twice as physically active as male participants and those without a history of Crohn’s disease-related surgery, respectively ( p ’s < 0.05). Overall, participants who reported greater exercise goal setting behaviors had higher levels of PA (r s = 0.34; p < 0.05). These findings highlight lower overall levels of PA in persons with Crohn’s disease, and exercise goal setting represents a potential target of behavior change interventions for increasing PA in this population.

Keywords: health behavior; physical activity assessment; chronic disease; Crohn’s disease (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/4/462/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/4/462/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:4:p:462-:d:1372903

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().