Exploring Physical Activity Preferences
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LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Exploring Physical Activity Preferences Abby C. King, Ph.D. & Sara Wilcox, Ph.D.
Published online: 12 February 2008 # The Society of Behavioral Medicine 2008
We read with interest the article by Beauchamp and colleagues [1] that explored preferences for exercising alone or in age-specific groups among a convenience sample of 947 Leeds, UK adults. (Individuals were approached in the city center by one of six trained research assistants and asked to respond to a series of questions about their “views about exercise” (p. 202). The article describes some interesting results concerning preferences for same-age exercise classes across the different age groups sampled. The authors compare their results with those from some of our work in the physical activity preference area [2]. Some of the interpretations that they have made about our work, however, are at odds with our own interpretations of our data. We believe that these differences merit discussion to reduce confusion in the field. A large number of domains underlie people’s preferences for physical activity participation. One domain consists of the presence or absence of an exercise instructor whose job is typically to structure an exercise class or group with respect to location, schedule, size, participant configuration, and content. The dichotomous preference question used in our work (i.e., “Which is more appealing to you, exercising in a group with an exercise leader or
A. C. King (*) Stanford Prevention Research Center, Dept. of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Hoover Pavilion, Room N229, 211 Quarry Road, Stanford, CA 94305–5705, USA e-mail: [email protected] S. Wilcox Department of Exercise Science, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA
exercising on your own, with some instruction?”) has been aimed primarily at this structural domain. We have noted specifically as part of this work that this type of question does not address whether someone choosing to exercise outside of an instructor-led class format (i.e., “on your own”) is also choosing to exercise completely alone or with neighbors, friends, relatives, coworkers, or other people in his or her environment [2] (p. 395). This latter social domain (i.e., exercise undertaken alone or with others) is the domain being targeted by the authors in the current study. The authors rightfully note that the structural and social domains are overlapping yet distinct [1] (p. 205). Neither of these studies has, in our opinion, assessed both of these domains in a way that can meaningfully separate the structural from social aspects of exercise preferences. The authors cite our work in noting that “epidemiological research has suggested a move away from group-based exercise interventions amongst older adults and toward interventions that are directed at the individual level” [1] (p. 204). In fact, a major objective underlying our work has been to uncover the vast array of factors delineating subgroups of mid-life and older adults that
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