Illness-and death-related messages found to be significant motivators
for exercise

Date:
October 19, 2021
Source:
University of Waterloo
Summary:
Fitness apps that emphasize illness- or death-related messaging
are more likely to be effective in motivating participation than
are social stigma, obesity, or financial cost messaging, according
to a recent study.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Fitness apps that emphasize illness- or death-related messaging are more
likely to be effective in motivating participation than are social stigma, obesity, or financial cost messaging, according to a recent study.


========================================================================== Previous studies, especially on smoking cessation and risky sexual
behaviour, found that messages related to mortality could be a barrier
to acknowledging health risks, but the study found this is the opposite
for fitness apps.

The study asked 669 research participants to indicate how persuasive
these five types of messages were in terms of motivating them to work out
at home with a fitness app, to uncover their effectiveness, connection
with social-cognitive beliefs such as self-regulation (goal setting), self-efficacy and outcome expectation, and seeing what role male/female
gender played.

"I did not expect only illness- and death-related messages to be
significant and motivational," said Kiemute Oyibo, a postdoctoral fellow
at the University of Waterloo's School of Public Health Sciences. "Not
only were illness- and death-related messages motivational, they had
a significant relationship with self-regulatory belief and outcome
expectation, and there was no significant difference between males and females." Oyibo said he had expected obesity-related messages (such as
"one in four Canadians has clinical obesity") to be motivational and
have a significant relationship with self-regulatory belief, given that
obesity is associated with the leading causes of global mortality.

"This study is important because it helps us -- especially designers
of health apps -- understand the types of messages that individuals,
regardless of gender, are likely to be motivated by in persuasive
health communication, and that are likely to influence individuals' social-cognitive beliefs about exercise," Oyibo said.

Oyibo said future studies should consider other demographic
characteristics besides gender, such as age, culture, race and education,
to uncover the role they play in persuasive health communication.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Waterloo. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Kiemute Oyibo. The Relationship between Perceived Health Message
Motivation and Social Cognitive Beliefs in Persuasive
Health Communication. Information, 2021; 12 (9): 350 DOI:
10.3390/info12090350 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/10/211019082710.htm

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