Which Intervention Strategies Promote the Adoption and Maintenance of Physical Activity? Evidence From Behavioral Trials With Cancer Survivors

Background/Purpose: We address four questions about interventions to promote physical activity in cancer survivors: (a) How often is both the adoption and maintenance of behavior change tested in trials? (b) How often do interventions generate adoption-plus-maintenance of behavior change? (c) Are intervention strategies specifically geared at promoting maintenance of behavior change deployed in trials? and (d) Which intervention strategies distinguish trials that promote both the adoption and maintenance of physical activity from trials that promote adoption-only or generate no behavioral changes? Methods: Computerized literature searches identified 206 reports of randomized trials that measured physical activity in the wake of the intervention. Results: Only 51 reports (24%) measured both behavioral adoption (postintervention) and behavioral maintenance (≥3 months follow-up). The 51 reports included 58 tests of interventions; 22% of tests observed both adoption and maintenance of physical activity, 26% reported adoption-only, and 52% found no change in behavior. Change techniques designed to promote behavioral maintenance were used much less frequently than adoption techniques or adoption and maintenance techniques. Interventions that aimed to improve quality of life, used supervised exercise sessions, were undertaken in community centers, and deployed fewer behavior change techniques were associated with adoption-plus-maintenance of physical activity in cancer survivors. Conclusions: The present findings offer new insights into the adoption and maintenance of physical activity and highlight the need to routinely assess these forms of behavior change in future trials. More extensive testing of intervention strategies specifically geared at maintenance of behavior change is warranted.