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

Objective: Physical 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). Methods: This 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. Results: Twenty-five subjects, mean age 48 years and BMI 34.1 kg/m(2), 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. Conclusion: This workshop may be effective in modifying PA patterns, thereby decreasing sedentarism and fostering PA maintenance. Practice implications: The theory-based workshop for increasing motivation to maintain optimal PA behavior provides an example of translational intervention from theoretical models to clinical practice. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.