Emotion, Aging, and Decision Making

Part of paid clinical trials in Chicago, Illinois.

Sponsor
DePaul University
Study ID
NCT06071130
Status
Not Yet Recruiting

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Conditions

  • Aging
  • Emotions
  • Health Behavior
  • Motivation
  • Social Behavior

Eligibility Criteria

Sex
ALL
Age
65 Years - 80 Years
Healthy Volunteers
Accepted

Interventions

  • Fit and Strong — BEHAVIORAL
    Procedure: During Years 3-5, participants will be recruited in waves through our standard recruitment practices to participate in Experiments 4A at the City of Chicago park sites. We will first prescreen them via telephone to verify that potential participants meet the inclusion criteria. F\&S! classes will be offered at two pre-determined Chicago park sites. Each of the two sites will host the 8-week-long program once in the spring and once in the fall for two years for a total of four F\&S! cycles at each center (totaling 8 F\&S! cohorts). Upon consenting to be in E4A, participants will be enrolled in F\&S! at the site closest to their home or the wait-list control. In the pre-intervention phase, participants both in F\&S! and on the waitlist will come to the lab at DePaul to complete the pre-intervention measurement batter. Within one week after baseline measurements, participants will attend F\&S! for 3 sessions a week for 8 weeks.

Study Details

Exercise is routinely recommended because of its benefits for physical, cognitive, and mental health. It is especially beneficial for older adults due to its potential buffering effects against Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (Luck et al., 2014). However, little is known about how to best encourage older adults to exercise. Based on behavior change theory, different intrapersonal and interpersonal motivational factors are likely to be relevant during the contemplation, action, and maintenance stages of behavior change. Generally, as a result of motivational shifts toward prioritizing positivity and socially meaningful goals with advancing age (Carstensen, 2006), socioemotional aspects of decision making may become more salient and influential for older adults (Mikels et al., 2015; Peter et al., 2011). Our previous work has demonstrated that positive affect (Mikels et al., 2020) and social goals (Steltenpohl et al., 2019) play a critical role in older adults' motivation to exercise, but these two lines of research have not been integrated to date. Recent work indicates that positive affect is particularly beneficial for health when shared in social connections (Fredrickson, 2016; Major et al., 2018), and the proposed work will, for the first time, examine how shared interpersonal positivity may impact exercise decision making and behavior, especially during the contemplation and action/maintenance stages of behavior change. But who are the older adults that benefit the most from exercise in terms of physical, cognitive, and mental health (and should be hence be targeted with messages)? Not all older adults reap the benefits of exercise (Sparks, 2014) and, conversely, sedentary older adults have the most to gain. Overall, the current proposed research program is innovative in its (a) translational application of insights from affective, cognitive, and aging theory and research to understand the antecedents and outcomes of exercise decision making in younger and older adults, (b) conceptualization of both the social and emotional aspects of decision making, (c) development of novel methods for health messaging that incorporate social influences, and (d) novel assessments of the exercise-health link.

Key Dates

Start date
Sep 3, 2025
Status verified
Feb 2025
Primary completion
Dec 31, 2027
Completion
Dec 31, 2027

Study Design

Enrollment
240 participants (estimated)
Allocation
NA
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
PREVENTION

Arms

  • Experimental: Experiment 4A & 4B
    Participants will attend for 3 sessions/week for 8 weeks. Instructors will conduct classes and maintain participant attendance records. Exercise components include flexibility, aerobics, strengthening, and physical activity logs. Classes begin and end with 10-minute warmups and cool downs. Participants are taught low-impact aerobic routines to maximize self-efficacy for physical activity maintenance after the program. This will include fitness walking that will progress from each participant's maximum capacity to the goal of 20 minutes of sustained walking. Participants will be instructed on how to gauge their exercise intensity and physical exertion. The strengthening focus of the program will improve independent functioning by targeting lower extremity strength with a graded, task-specific approach. Resistance will be progressively increased over the course of the program by adding weight. At the end of each exercise session, participants will log physical activity.

Primary Outcome Measure

Connecting Socioemotional Aspects of Exercise to Improvements in Physical Health among Older Adults [ Time Frame: two years ]

Central Contacts

Locations (1)

FacilityCityStateZIPSite coordinators
DePaul UniversityChicagoIllinois60614
Joseph A Mikels, PhD
[email protected]
773-325-8769

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By research site
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