Open Collections

Gala, Blanca

University of British Columbia

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) affects millions of individuals worldwide. Diabetes Prevention Programs (DPPs) targeting diet and physical activity (PA) have shown reduction in T2D incidence by up to 58%. However, few DPPs report how well participants adhere to PA recommendations. Small Steps for Big Changes (SSBC) is an evidence-based DPP which delivers brief dietary and PA counseling. SSBC aims to help adults living with prediabetes make sustainable modifications to their dietary and PA behaviour to reduce their risk of developing T2D. Participants were asked to use mHealth (i.e., mobile health applications) to self-monitor and self-reflect on their PA in the year following program completion. Behaviour change require an understanding of the current and desired behaviour. Commonly, retrospective data from interviews or focus groups are interpreted, coded, and then analyzed within specific frameworks such as the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF). Few studies collect data in real-time free-living environments to assess people’s perceptions on their PA practices. Real-time data collection methods can provide unbiased information about people’s experiences when engaging in PA. This thesis examined self-reported PA and real-time self-reflections reported in the year following completion of SSBC. The most common barriers and facilitators to PA were identified and categorized within the TDF. Finally, correlation was calculated to examine the relationship between PA and self-reflections. On average, participants reported that they exercised 143 days and wrote 78 self-reflections during the year. Self-reflections most commonly included detailed information on their exercise (i.e., self-monitoring of exercise) (4,872 times during the year) and descriptions of facilitators to exercising (3,190). The most commonly identified domains were Behavioural regulation (5,018) and Environmental context and resources (4,532). A positive and moderate correlation was found between self-reflections and days exercised (r= 0.424,p=0.01). These findings add to the literature on PA patterns among individuals at risk of T2D and suggest that elaborating on self-monitoring of PA is an acceptable way to self-reflect among SSBC participants. Future research could benefit from exploring how self-monitoring of PA influences internal processes to improve PA habits. mHealth technology may be an effective way to incorporate self-reflection in future interventions aiming to prevent T2D.

Text

2023-03-03

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/83912

Health and Exercise Sciences

University of British Columbia

UBCO

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/