NCT06071130

Emotion, Aging, and Decision Making

Not yet recruiting NA Last updated 12 February 2025

What this trial tests

NA trial testing Fit and Strong in Motivation in 240 participants. Not yet recruiting.

Timeline

3 September 2025

Primary endpoint
31 December 2027

31 December 2027

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	DePaul University
Phase	NA
Status	Not yet recruiting
Study type	INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation	na
Design	single group
Masking	none
Primary purpose	prevention
Enrollment	240
Start date	3 September 2025
Primary completion	31 December 2027
Estimated completion	31 December 2027
Sites	1 location across United States

Drugs / interventions tested

• Fit and Strong

Conditions studied

• Motivation — all drugs for Motivation →
• Aging — all drugs for Aging →
• Health Behavior — all drugs for Health Behavior →
• Emotions — all drugs for Emotions →

Sponsor

DePaul University

Who can join

Adults 65 to 80, any sex, with Motivation or Aging. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Sponsor's own description

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.

Publications & conference data

No peer-reviewed publications indexed yet for this trial.