Newsletter
Volume 29 | 2006 | Number 2
Behavior Analysis in Health, Sport, & Fitness
By Dr. Michael A. Kirkpatrick
While the Health, Sport, and Fitness (HSF) special interest group (SIG) is best known for sponsoring work-out and activity sessions during the annual ABA convention, we are broadly concerned with supporting the application of behavior analysis to behavioral challenges in these three interrelated domains. According to the charter of the World Health Organization (WHO):
“Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, political belief, economic or social condition (International Health Conference, 1946).”
Despite this ambitious popular proclamation, 14% of all deaths in the United States have been attributed by medical researchers to activity patterns and diet (McGinnis & Foege, 1993). Moreover, physical activity has been shown to reduce mortality and morbidity associated with a wide range of potentially life-threatening conditions including heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer, and high blood pressure (Hahn, et al., 1998). One of the reasons that unhealthy behavior continues to proliferate while physical activity declines is that those who wish to change behavior are not effectively manipulating contingencies. Group designs that offer one-size-fits-all interventions and “canned” diet and exercise programs fail to take into account individual differences in behavioral function, thereby failing to address effective mechanisms of change. The HSF-SIG membership is committed to using behavior analysis to accelerate healthy behavior, preferably prior to the emergence of adverse medical circumstances or aberrant behavior.
Members of HSF come together because our dependent measures are health or performance related, our interventions entail physical or athletic activity, or our populations are identified due to their health or athletic status. We share a common commitment to applying elementary principles of behavior to promote health, sport, and fitness, and to using single-subject design whenever feasible to accurately identify causal influences on the behavior of individuals. Often enough, we apply these principles to our own lives to accelerate healthy behaviors, develop skills in our favorite sports or fitness activities, and to gain access to performance-related reinforcers. The group provides opportunities for networking, collaboration, and collegial support through an electronic mailing list, a Yahoo! group, and electronic newsletter. It is not necessary to be a member of ABA in order to join.
At the annual ABA meeting in Atlanta in May 2006, the HSF-SIG issued its first $100 cash prize for a student research presentation in a health, sport, or fitness related area. The award went to Aaron Lesser, for his work entitled “Indirect Measures of Putative Covert Behavior Following Instructions to Perform Sport-Related Visual Imagery.” The SIG will be offering this prize annually. Authors need only send a copy of their abstract and a statement of interest (i.e., “I’m a student and I want the money!”) to the HSF-SIG chair in October when making their submission to the national ABA convention. Students do not need to be sole authors in order to qualify; nor do they need to be members of ABA or the HSF group. If we have multiple qualified submissions, however, preference may be given to members.
This year in Atlanta, SIG members presented symposia, posters, and papers on topics ranging from the role of reinforcement in the promotion of healthy eating and exercise to procedures for tailoring fitness programs to the needs of special populations. We are looking to strengthen our ties with other organizations that address the behavioral domains of interest to our group. It is our belief that increasing the role of behavior analysis in assessing and modifying health-related behavior is a critical step in reversing current trends toward increasingly sedentary lifestyles and the hazards they bring. As stated in the popular adage “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” During the next year, the HSF-SIG will be working toward furthering the cause of behavioral health. We are always accepting applications. You can join our Yahoo! group directly by navigating to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/B-fit/ and following the instructions. E-mail the SIG chair at mkirkpatrick@wju.edu to be added to the e-mail list and receive a dues schedule. Best of all, you can become an affiliate for free.
References
Hahn, R.A., et al. (1998). Excess deaths from nine chronic diseases in the United States, 1986. Journal of the American Medical Association, 264, 2554-2559.
McGinnis J.M., & Foege, W.H. (1993). Actual causes of death in the United States. Journal of the American Medical Association, 270, 207-212.