Long-term effects of a psychological group intervention on physical exercise and health: the MoVo concept

BACKGROUND Little is known about the long-term effects of group intervention programs targeting physical exercise. This paper reports on the effectiveness of MoVo-LISA, a theory-based (MoVo-concept) standardized intervention program. Participants are taught cognitive-behavioral strategies of goal-setting, action planning, barrier management, and self-monitoring. METHODS N = 220 in-patients of an orthopedic rehabilitation clinic were assigned to the usual care group (UCG) or the intervention group (IG) (quasi-experimental design). Assessments were conducted at 5 time points. RESULTS At 12-month follow-up, level of exercise in the IG was 28.5 min/week higher than in the UCG (P = .05). Moreover, 50% of the IG was exercising for at least 60 min/week, but only 33% of the UCG (P = .01). During the 12 months after clinic discharge, patients of the IG reported the same low pain experience that they had reached at the end of the clinic stay, whereas UCG patients` pain experience slowly reincreased. CONCLUSIONS Results provide evidence that intervention programs based on the MoVo concept lead to long-term improvement in exercise behavior and health status.