Trial Information

Goal Setting and Decisional Balance Applied to Physical Activity and Fruit & Vegetable Consumption

Goal setting has become an integral part of physical activity and dietary interventions;
however, few studies have examined the theoretical constructs that drive goal-setting
theory. To address the limitations and gaps in the literature, we designed an 8-week health
behavior intervention for a racially and ethnically diverse sample of older adults. The
primary aim of this study was to determine whether older adults randomized to a goal-setting
intervention for physical activity or fruit and vegetable (F&V) intake would make
significant improvements in physical activity or F&V intake. The secondary aim of this study
was to determine whether participating in goal-setting interventions was associated with
changes in theoretical constructs related to goal-setting. We hypothesized that older adults
assigned to the physical activity condition would significantly increase metabolic minutes
(MET-minutes) of physical activity from baseline to follow-up and that participants assigned
to the F&V intake condition would significantly increase mean servings of F&V. In addition,
we hypothesized that mean scores of goal specificity, difficulty, effort, commitment,
persistence, barrier self-efficacy, and task self-efficacy would significantly increase from
baseline to follow-up for both groups.