Planning, leisure-time physical activity, and coping self-efficacy in persons with spinal cord injury: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Arbour-Nicitopoulos KP, Martin Ginis KA, Latimer AE. Planning, leisure-time physical activity, and coping self-efficacy in persons with spinal cord injury: a randomized controlled trial.

Objective: To examine the effects of action and coping planning (ACP) on leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) and coping self-efficacy in exercise initiates living with spinal cord injury (SCI).

Design: Ten-week, single-blind randomized controlled trial.

Setting: General community.

Participants: Adults (N=44) with SCI (mean age +/- SD, 49.70+/-12.71y) were randomly assigned to either an action planning only (APO; n=22) or an ACP (n=22) condition.

Intervention: Participants in the APO condition formed action plans for LTPA at weeks 1 and 5, and self-monitored their LTPA behavior. Those in the ACP condition formed coping plans for managing self-identified activity barriers, in addition to forming action plans and self-monitoring.

Main outcome measures: Measures of intentions, coping self-efficacy, and behavior were assessed at weeks 1, 5, and 10.

Results: Intention-to-treat analyses indicated that persons in the ACP condition reported significantly greater LTPA, scheduling, and general barriers self-efficacy at weeks 5 and 10, in comparison with those in the APO condition. Scheduling self-efficacy mediated the effects of the intervention on LTPA, accounting for 38% of the total effect of the intervention on week 5 LTPA.

Conclusions: These findings illustrate the effectiveness of supplementing action plans with coping plans for enhancing LTPA and coping self-efficacy beliefs among exercise initiates living with SCI.