Abstract
Background: Adults who undergo cardiac rehabilitation have difficulty maintaining physical activity post-program. Little is known about the psychological factors that predict physical activity maintenance. Rothman (2000) proposes that outcome satisfaction is an important variable for maintenance. The purpose of this study is to explore whether outcomes satisfaction variables predict physical activity maintenance after cardiac rehabilitation.
Methods: Adults having completed a 4-month cardiac rehabilitation program (N=90) responded to questionnaires at the end of the program, 2-months post-program and 8-months post-program. For outcome satisfaction, they reported (1) general satisfaction regarding physical activity, (2) perceived change on 17 health outcomes, and (3) satisfaction with the reported change. Participants also responded to the Godin Leisure Time Exercise Questionnaire. A maintainer was defined as someone who met the physical activity guidelines at two specific time points. Logistic regression analyses were performed to predict the likelihood of maintaining physical activity at 2- and 8-months post-program.
Results: Only the logistic regression model to predict maintenance eight months post-program was statistically significant, ?2(3) = 19.129, p<0.001, explaining 33.7% of the variance (Nagelkerke R2). Of the three predictor variables, two were statistically significant: general satisfaction regarding physical activity (odds ratio =4.505, p=0.007) and perceived change regarding physical health outcomes (odds ratio =2.078, p=0.012).
Conclusions: As per Rothman's hypothesis, outcome satisfaction appears to be an important variable for maintenance, especially 8 months post-program. To help maintain physical activity, cardiac rehabilitation programs may want to help participants make links between their physical activity participation and health or physical activity related outcomes.
