JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Midlife women experience elevated risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and associated mortality, and those who have additional risk conditions such as obesity or hypertension report specific barriers to engaging in cardioprotective behaviors such as physical activity (PA). As increasing PA could meaningfully attenuate CVD risk, considerable effort has been devoted to understanding PA determinants and designing interventions for midlife women, although with suboptimal success. A new approach to understanding PA among midlife women could improve upon existing resources, by focusing on (1) novel psychosocial influences on PA in this population (i.e., body satisfaction, social interactions, social comparisons, mood state), and (2) within-person relations between these influences and PA in the natural environment.

Objective:

The overarching goal of Project WHADE (for Women’s Health And Daily Experiences) is to use an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) approach to capture ecologically valid relations between midlife women’s psychosocial experiences and PA as they engage in their normal daily activities. The primary aim of the study is to identify within-person psychosocial predictors of variability in PA (i.e., times when PA is higher vs. lower for a given individual).

Methods:

Midlife women (ages 40-60 years) with one or more additional risk markers for CVD (e.g., hypertension) are recruited from primary care clinics and the general community (target N = 100). Eligible women complete an initial survey and a face-to-face baseline session before engaging in a 10-day EMA protocol. Psychosocial experiences are assessed using brief self-report via smartphone five times per day and PA is assessed throughout waking hours using a research-grade monitor. Participants return for a brief exit interview at the end of 10 days. Multilevel models that address the nested structure of EMA data will be used to evaluate study aims.

Results:

Recruitment and enrollment are ongoing and a total of 75 women have completed the protocol to date. Data collection is expected to finish by July 2020.

Conclusions:

Project WHADE is designed to identify naturally occurring psychosocial experiences that predict short-term variability in midlife women’s PA. As such, results from this study should advance the current understanding of PA among midlife women by providing further insight into within-person psychosocial influences on PA in this group. In the future, this information could help to inform the design of interventions for this population. Clinical Trial: N/A