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Biomedical subjects

T Stachnik

Publications and source records attributed to T Stachnik.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

A program model to enhance adherence in work-site-based fitness programs.

We describe a program model designed to achieve high adherence, a major problem for work-site exercise/fitness programs. Our model is a 6-month program consisting of 15 1-hour program meetings, with participants exercising on their own time four times per week. Procedures employed to enhance adherence are contracting, group competition, monitoring, and social support. This program model has been applied nine times. One hundred fifty-nine university employees took part in the initial test with a dropout rate of 9% (15 persons). The average adherence rate for nondropouts was 98%, which is higher than rates usually reported in the literature. Adherence was defined as exercising four times a week.

Adult

Effects of a 6-month incentive-based exercise program on adherence and work capacity.

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effect of behavioral management techniques on exercise adherence linked to improvements in work capacity and maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max). One hundred thirty-seven participants in six different worksites on a university campus (five experimental and one comparison site) completed 6 months of a minimally supervised, incentive-based endurance exercise program. All participants in the experimental group contracted to engage in at least four bouts of 30 min of verified aerobic exercise within a prescribed target heart rate range each week for the duration of the program. Forty dollars deposited at the beginning of the program served as a response cost that could be lost as a result of failure to fulfill the weekly contracts. Individuals in the comparison group participated in a similar 6-month program but without the contracts and response cost strategies. Weekly adherence for both groups was strictly defined as verified fulfillment of all four bouts of exercise. Adherence for the experimental group was 97% by this definition, and adherence for the comparison group was 19% (P less than 0.01). VO2max increased 2.6% (P less than 0.01), and treadmill test time increased 16% (P less than 0.01) in the experimental group after the 6-month program, with no significant changes in the comparison group. Recovery heart rates at 2 and 4 min post-exercise were significantly lower at 6 months in the experimental group but not in the comparison group. These data provide evidence that adherence to a 6-month endurance exercise program can be improved significantly through the use of well conceived behavior management strategies.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult

The smoking problem.

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Developing Countries

Worksite smoking cessation programs: a potential for national impact.

Data from three pilot studies of small worksite smoking cessation programs demonstrate that programs which appeal to all smokers in an organization, not just those who have stated an interest in achieving cessation, will attract a high per cent of smokers and assist an unusually high per cent of them to achieve and maintain abstinence.

Costs and Cost Analysis

A partially self-instructional system that any teacher can develop and implement.

Some authors have suggested that the teacher has two basic choices of style which can be used to influence learning: he/she can manage learning resources or he/she can function as such a resource. Part of the appeal for the authors of the course format described here is the blurring of that distinction. Functioning both as a manager and a resource appears to us a near optimal role for the teacher.

Curriculum