Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) interventions for promoting physical activity: a systematic review and meta-analysis

ABSTRACT

Physical inactivity is a key risk factor for non-communicable diseases, and there is a need for interventions to increase the adoption and maintenance of regular physical activity. Interventions based on Acceptance and Commitment (ACT) have shown promise for promoting a range of health behaviours, including physical activity. The aims of this review were to (1) determine the effectiveness of ACT interventions for physical activity; and (2) identify the ACT processes, behaviour change techniques (BCTs) and intervention characteristics associated with ACT interventions. Eight electronic databases were searched for ACT interventions that aimed to increase physical activity. Seven eligible studies were included in the systematic review, and ACT processes, Behaviour Change Techniques and other intervention components and characteristics of the included interventions were coded. Six studies were randomised controlled trials that were included in a random-effects meta-analysis, which indicated small-to-moderate effects on physical activity (SMD = 0.32, 95% CI (0.07, 0.57), p = 0.01). ACT interventions show promise for increasing physical activity, but very few of the ‘active ingredients’ of ACT interventions could be characterised as BCTs. Future development of ACT interventions for physical activity should attempt to describe and name the ACT processes targeted by the intervention, and the BCTs used to target those processes

KEYWORDS:

• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
• ACT
• physical activity
• behaviour
• change techniques BCTs
• BCTs
• health promotion

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Isla Kuhn for help with search strategies; and Kate Ellis and Joe Oliver for constructive criticism of the manuscript. Both authors contributed to designing the review protocol, screening the identified studies, extracting data, and analysing and interpreting the findings. SP drafted the manuscript. Both authors read, contributed to and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its supplementary materials.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute for Health Research School for Primary Care Research (NIHR-SPCR) under Grant SPCR-2014-10043 (reference number: 425).