Response to Physical Activity Programs and Their Effects on Health Behavior

Abstract

EVALUATION of the overall effectiveness of health programs concerned with disease prevention and health enhancement requires ex- amination of the factors that influence response to such programs, as well as of the changes in health attitudes and behavior that they generate.We have given specific attention to these issues in regard to programs of supervised phys- ical activity for middle-aged men considered at risk of coronary heart disease.Data were obtained as part of a collaborative research effort which included pilot studies at the Universities of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania State in 1966-68.These studies, supported by the Heart Disease and Stroke Control Program of the Public Health Service, were designed primarily to examine the relationship between physical activity and changes in car- diovascular risk.