Physical Activity Partners for Women With Cardiovascular Disease Risk: Proof-of-Concept Trial With Daily Assessment.
Objective: Risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) increases sharply for women during midlife (aged 40–65). Physical activity (PA) is key during this time, though lack of social support is a primary barrier. The present study combined PA coaching with the formation of PA partnerships by pairing partic...
| Publicado en: | Health Psychology Vol. 45; no. 4; pp. 413 - 423 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
| Publicado: |
American Psychological Association
Apr2026
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=193098787&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 193098787 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 02786133 82X jtl: Health Psychology issn: 02786133 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Apr2026 vid: 45 iid: 4 pid: 34 pub: American Psychological Association artinfo: ui: 193098787 10.1037/hea0001554 ppf: 413 ppct: 10 formats: tig: atl: Physical Activity Partners for Women With Cardiovascular Disease Risk: Proof-of-Concept Trial With Daily Assessment. aug: au: Arigo, Danielle Baga, Kiri Folk, Amanda L. Haggerty, Kyle affil: Department of Family Medicine, Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine Department of Psychology, Rowan University Department of Mental Health, Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center, Richmond, Virginia, United States su: Patient compliance Women Hypertension Human research subjects Socioeconomic factors Communication Interpersonal relations Social support Drugs Patient participation Middle age Patient selection T-test (Statistics) Research funding Questionnaires Pilot projects Cardiovascular diseases risk factors Descriptive statistics Pre-tests & post-tests Physical activity Disease complications sug: subj: Patient compliance Women Hypertension Human research subjects Socioeconomic factors Communication Interpersonal relations Social support Drugs Patient participation Middle age Drugs and Druggists' Sundries Merchant Wholesalers Pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing Pharmaceuticals and pharmacy supplies merchant wholesalers Other Individual and Family Services Patient selection T-test (Statistics) Research funding Questionnaires Pilot projects Cardiovascular diseases risk factors Descriptive statistics Pre-tests & post-tests Physical activity Disease complications keyword: daily diary midlife physical activity social support women's health daily diary midlife physical activity social support women's health ab: Objective: Risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) increases sharply for women during midlife (aged 40–65). Physical activity (PA) is key during this time, though lack of social support is a primary barrier. The present study combined PA coaching with the formation of PA partnerships by pairing participants with each other for support during an 8-week behavioral PA intervention. This proof-of-concept study assessed feasibility, acceptability, and clinically significant change in the outcome and mediator of interest. Method: Women in midlife with ≥1 risk factor for CVD (e.g., hypertension; N = 62, M = 52.6, M = 32.6 kg/m) completed six weekly sessions with a PA coach, with assessment in Weeks 1 and 8; three sessions were joint meetings with their PA partner. They also completed daily ambulatory assessment and postintervention surveys. Data were collected in 2024 (NCT06350604). Results: Recruitment (4.5 months), treatment adherence (97%), daily assessment compliance (84%), and retention (100%) all met or exceeded prespecified benchmarks, and sample characteristics showed strong representation from hard-to-reach groups (e.g., 20% household income <$50,000/year). Partners communicated on 47% of days (M = 3.5 times/week); PA increased by ∼500 steps/day from baseline (p <.01, d = 0.43) and 19% of participants increased by ≥2,000 steps/day. Acceptability was high (4.2/5) and ratings of PA-specific social support meaningfully increased (p <.001, d = 0.66). Conclusion: Results demonstrate high acceptability and strong promise of partner-based PA intervention for improving cardioprotective behavior among women in midlife with elevated CVD risk. Thus, findings support larger scale testing with the inclusion of daily assessment, which can reveal mechanistic pathways linking social support to PA in daily life. Public Significance Statement: Findings support the promise of partnerships between participants in a physical activity program to promote activity among women aged 40–65 who have risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Increasing social support via partnerships and embedding a daily assessment protocol is feasible, acceptable, and beneficial for this vulnerable group. This approach offers unique opportunities to better understand how social relationships affect health, including the formation of new relationships and mechanisms of action in daily life. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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