Enhancing regular physical activity and relapse prevention through a 1-day therapeutic patient education workshop: A pilot study

ObjectivePhysical activity (PA) is important for managing chronic diseases, such as diabetes and obesity. Yet over half of patients who adopt PA programs do not maintain them at 6 months. To encourage regular PA among our patients, we developed a 1-day outpatient motivational workshop based on well-known theoretical frameworks. The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the motivational workshop in terms of total and activity-specific energy expenditures (EE) and body mass index (BMI).MethodsThis workshop is an integrative model of multiple theoretical frameworks for therapeutic education and behavior change, alternating individual sessions and group sessions in a multidisciplinary setting. Patients completed a validated, self-administered, quantitative PA frequency questionnaire at baseline and at 1 year. Stages of change and relapse risk were identified at baseline.ResultsTwenty-five subjects, mean age 48 years and BMI 34.1 kg/m2, completed pre-/post-evaluations. At baseline, 73% of subjects reported regular activities of daily living and 52% reported regular formal exercise. Using total and activity-specificEE, we identified 69.2% as sedentary. A relapse risk was recognized in 76%. Paired t-tests showed significant (P = 0.048) reductions in weight and BMI and a significant (P = 0.015) increase in high-intensity exerciseEE. Total EE showed no difference. Among baseline sedentary subjects, 39% became active.ConclusionThis workshop may be effective in modifying PA patterns, thereby decreasing sedentarism and fostering PA maintenance.Practice implicationsThe theory-based workshop for increasing motivation to maintain optimal PA behavior provides an example of translational intervention from theoretical models to clinical practice.