UC Davis

Given the role of physical activity (PA) and good nutrition to delay the onset and progression of most chronic conditions, effective interventions are needed to influence lifestyle behaviors of community-dwelling populations. The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of Texercise Select to improve health indicators, PA, and dietary behaviors, and confidence to engage in healthful behaviors. Texercise Select, a 12-week exercise program, was delivered. Baseline and 12-week follow-up assessments were collected from 220 participants with baseline data who were aged 45 years and older for this non-randomized one-group pre-post design trial. Linear mixed models were fitted for continuous outcome variables and GEE models with logit link function for binary outcome variables. Significant improvements (P < 0.05) were seen in physical activity scores (d = 0.64 for aerobic activity), weekly fruit/vegetable consumption (d = 0.31), daily water consumption (d = 0.29), as well as PA- and nutrition-related confidence (d =0.38 and 0.21, respectively) and social support (d =0.45). Programs rooted in best practices show promise for positively impacting large numbers of participants and becoming sustainably embedded in communities over time.