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Abstract

Run to Quit (RTQ) is a national smoking cessation and learn to run program with promising cessation and physical activity outcomes. However, attrition was high with only 41.1% of participants completing the program. Determining predictors of attendance could help to improve attendance and program effectiveness in future iterations. Given that the program was offered in a group setting, the purposes of this study were to explore predictors of attendance and examine whether including group-related variables added to the prediction of attendance beyond individual variables. Blocked multiple regression analysis was used, with mean substitution for missing data (n=335). Individual predictors included in block 1 were middle aged adults, older adults, gender, home ownership, quit self-efficacy, run self-efficacy, baseline nicotine dependence (FTND), and baseline moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Group-related predictors added in block 2 were group cohesion subscales (attraction to group-task, attraction to group-social (ATG-S), group integration-task, group integration-social), transformational leadership (TL) of the coach, belonging, perceived similarity, and group size (control variable). When only individual predictors were included, the model was statistically significant and explained 4.8% of the variance in attendance (adjusted R²=.048, F(8,326)=3.111, p=.002). Both baseline MVPA (β=-.135, p=.013) and FTND (β=-.135, p=.015) were statistically significant predictors of attendance. Once group-related predictors were added, the overall model identified additional individual and group-related predictors of attendance. Both individual and group predictors were significant and adding group-related variables explained an additional 4.2% of the variance. Overall, the final model explained 9.0% of the variance (adjusted R²=.090, F(16,318)=3.067, p