Psychology

Sarah Labudek - Psychology M.Sc.
Network Aging Research

Bergheimer Straße 20
D-69115 Heidelberg

Phone: +49 (0)6221 54 8140
labudek(at)nar.uni-heidelberg.de

Fellows: Dr. Michael Schwenk

Health behavior change through lifestlyle-integrated functional training: comparison between a group-based and individual-based training approach

For many people, decreased body functionality through aging comes along with declined well-being and quality of life. To combat the age-related reduction of strength and balance and the aligned decrease of physical activity, the Lifestyle-integrated Functional Exercise (LiFE) program integrates various functional exercises and activities into daily activities.

Successful integration of physical training and activity in daily life is based on multiple factors and requires a standardized and structured procedure. Therefore, the LiFE program not only contains the practice of LiFE exercises themselves, but also supports the process of health behavior change with different psychological strategies. Among others, these strategies comprise the motivation for long-term adherence and commitment to the exercises. Self-efficacy (the conviction to be capable of mastering a specific challenge) and self-discipline, which is expressed through different planning and coping strategies, are also crucial to enact the mere goal to be more physically active successfully into action.

LiFE is usually delivered through a series of house visits. The nationwide implementation through this individualized approach would be cost-intensive. Therefore, pilot studies in Canada (Fleig et al., 2016), the US (Gibbs et al., 2015) and the NAR in Heidelberg tested a group-based approach.

The PhD project has two aims: First, we want to develop a structural procedure for the group-based LiFE training based on the existing pilot studies. Second, we want to compare the individual-based to the group-based LiFE program within a large-scaled RCT. Outcomes are fall risk, physical activity level, motor performances, as well as changes in individual (motivation, self-efficacy) and group-related (cohesion, adherence) factors.

Scholarships

• 2016 Baden-Württemberg-Scholarship for one semester at Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA

• 2013 ERASMUS-Scholarship for one semester at the University of Jyväskylä, Finnland

Publications

• Publikationen auf Researchgate
• Publikationen auf Google Scholar

Vita