Dropout rates swiss study
1
EXERCISE CONTINUATION AND DISCONTINUATION WITHIN SWISS FITNESS CLUBS Mattia Piffaretti and Benoît Lenzen ISMMS / EEPS, Faculté de Médecine, University of Geneva, Switzerland. INTRODUCTION In today’s western society, more and more people are sedentary. This lifestyle is related with many health problems. Physical activity has been identified as a factor that enhances public health. On this particular issue, sport and exercise psychology has produced an important body of knowledge about the determinants of long term physical activity, and has come up with a series of theoretical models (for an overview: Piffaretti, Lenzen, and Kayser, 2006). Because most of the existing studies have investigated exercise perseverance as related to school physical education, competitive sports and community-based programmes, there is a lack of intelligence about the role of fitness clubs in promoting long-term physical activity. To contribute to a better knowledge about the efficiency of fitness club programmes to promote physical activity in the long term, we decided to conduct a study in Switzerland. The first step of the study (Piffaretti et al., 2006; step A in the schema below) allowed us to come up with the theoretically-based profiles of new fitness clients, that is people who had just subscribed in a fitness club. STEPS OF THE INVESTIGATION: In the further steps of the study (B and C in the scheme above), we aimed to answer to the following research questions: - International studies state that 50% of fitness clients give up their membership 6 months after their subscription (Buckworth & Dishman, 2002). What are the figures and rates about the clients’ discontinuation in the Swiss fitness clubs ? - Are there different types of exercise discontinuation, and what do they imply in terms of long term active living ? - Which personal factors can potentially predict dropout from exercise programmes within a fitness club ? METHODOLOGY An interview guide was elaborated to question fitness clients 3, 6 and 12 months after their initial subscription. The interview was held by phone, lasted from 10 to 20 minutes and included the following questions: (a) continuation or discontinuation, (b) the frequency of their visits each week (if they continued or dropped out), (c) the frequency of their visits to the fitness club at the time of their initial subscription, (d) the occurrence of contact with the fitness personnel, (e) the principal reasons for their continuation (or disengagement). 3 months after subscription, interviewers were able to contact 68 individuals (30 males and 38 females) out of the initial 156 individuals (43.58% of the initial sample). 6 months later, the same sample was down to 41 (25.94% of the initial sample), to which were added 18 new interviews of people who could not be reached after 3 months. Thus, the total number of people investigated 6 months after subscription was of 59 individuals. Descriptive analyses were conducted about dropout rates and their related reasons. Then, a more qualitative analysis was run on the basis of the interviews that had been taped and type- written verbatim. Finally, Khi square statistical analyses (indicated with ν, for data that were treated nominally) and ANOVA (Student T; for data treated numerically) were conducted to find out about relationships between factors that were assessed at subscription time and clients’ decisions to continue or quit their fitness club’s programme 6 months later. RESULTS A) DROPOUT RATES Figure 1 : evolution of participation rates 3, 6 and 12 months after fitness club subscription 100 78.78 66.66 82.05 69.23 61.11 55 65 75 85 95 Continuing after 3 months N=67 Continuing after 6 months N=59 Continuing after 12 months N=39 % Male Female Generally speaking, 74.5% of the fitness clients continue to visit the fitness club 6 months after subscription. Figure 1 illustrates the evolution of the participation rates while distinguishing male and female clients. Therefore, 25.4% had dropped out after 6 months. As illustrated in figure 2, 71% of the dropouts still continued physical activities outside of the fitness club, at times very regularly (from 1 to 3 times a week and more). 29% of the dropouts were “general dropouts”, that is they did not carry on with any kind of physical activity outside of the fitness club. Figure 2: Types of dropout (n=14; general vs specific) Does exercise outside less than once a week 29% Does exercise outside from 1 to 3 times a week 35% Does exercise outside more than 3 times a week 7% Does not exercise at all 29% B) TYPES OF DROPOUT Individual interviews allowed to qualify even more four different categories of dropouts: 1) Seasonal dropout: basically, clients tend to exercise in the fitness club only during the “cold” season (autumn, winter and spring), leaving summer for outdoor activities. In other words, these kinds of dropout are temporary. 2) Forced dropout: clients feel an obligation to cease their involvement because of factors they perceive as being out of control. “Lack of time” due to job responsibilities or professional obligations are typical reasons for forced dropout. In most cases, fitness membership is resumed when the clients set themselves new exercising goals. 3) Health-related dropout: clients evoke injury or illness to account for their withdrawal. These types of dropout nevertheless express additional complaints about other aspects of their health, including high social needs, and are associated with the presence of more extrinsic motivations, mainly affiliation. 4) Passive continuation: the client is not really keen about continuing his/her involvement, but nevertheless goes on visiting the centre “passively”. Typically, clients feel less motivated when they are confronted with the economical reality of a fitness club and their drawbacks (loss of services, decrease of fitness services / activities, loss of fitness personnel’s quality). Although passive continuation is not properly a dropout, it can be regarded as a “borderline case” of dropout, the first step towards a definitive withdrawal from the fitness club. C) PREDICTING FACTORS OF (DIS-)CONTINUATION The ANOVA and Khi square analyses allowed to highlight some possible predicting factors of continuation and dropout: - Attitude towards exercise: scores of negative attitude towards exercise are superior in dropouts (1.86) than in perseverance cases (1.45; Student T=-2.19, p=.03). Positive attitude was more notable in the perseverance cases (59 % of the individuals) than in the dropouts (only 26% had reported positive attitude) - Self-determined motivation: Dropouts are overrepresented among those people who start their involvement principally because they come with other friends (ν = 4.62, df=1, p<.05), that is for extrinsic reasons. Self-determined intention characterises most of the cases of exercise continuation. Principal reasons for continuation are in fact love of physical activity, pleasure to go to the fitness, perception to be in better shape and to feel healthier. - Age: Adolescents (17-25 years-olds) drop out more frequently (40%) than adults (19%) after a 6 months programme. - Stages of change: dropouts significantly outnumber cases of perseverance among those individuals who at the time of their subscription had “no practice in the last 6 months, with intention to begin” (ν = 7.81, df = 1, p<.01). Similarly, dropout rate was significantly higher for those who had practiced less than once a week in the 3 months previous to the interview (ν = 2.96, df=1, p<.10). During the fitness programme itself, dropout cases are significantly more frequent than continuation among individuals who practice less than once a week (p<.10). - Smoking habit: finally, the percentage of people who like smoking is significantly lower in the continuation group (11.36%) than in the dropout group (46.6%, ν = 6.85, df=2; p<.01). Not only do dropouts tend to smoke more than people who continued exercising, but they actually consume more cigarettes a day (20 in average) than the smokers in the continuation group (9.4 cigarettes a day). DISCUSSION Dropout rates: Despite the methodological limitations of our study, the results suggest that the estimation of the international literature (50% dropout rate after 6 months) are not only over- rated (only 25% drop out in our sample), but conceal a more complex reality. Actually, dropouts are rarely general, but rather “specific” (either seasonal or forced). Fitness clubs as promoters for physical activity : The consideration of different dropout typologies suggest that (moderately) high fitness dropout rates do not necessarily imply that fitness clubs fail to maintain people in exercise. A large majority of the clients seem actually animated by a self- determined will to exercise, which fosters long term motivation for physical activity – either within or without fitness clubs. Predicting factors of fitness membership discontinuation : The client at risk in Switzerland roughly corresponds to the following profile: a woman who comes to the fitness club with hardly quantifiable objectives (to look better, to lose weight, get to know people, and so on; this corroborates Goal achievement theory by Nicholls, 1984). This type of client tends to be a smoker who does not have a very high self-esteem of his/her physical skills and thus is not self-efficacious (Bandura, 1977). He/she has not been doing physical activities for more than 6 months, and sometimes even since the schooldays (see transtheoretical model, Prochaska & Marcus, 1994). He/she does not tend to come to the club on his/her own will, but in search of social contact (self-determination theory, Deci & Ryan, 1985). Thus, our data seem to confirm some of the major theoretical predictions. A Description of the characteristics of new fitness club clients at the time of their initial subscription CONCLUSIONS The present study attempted to assess attrition rate within Swiss fitness clubs and factors predicting dropout. The underlying interest of these research questions was to highlight the way fitness clubs can also be regarded as places to promote long term physical activity in a wide range of clients. The results of our investigation open up some interesting perspectives for practical application. First of all, knowledge about the reasons for continuation and dropout should provide the practitioner with a first basis for intervention. Clients pursue fitness exercise when they feel their physical shape is getting better, when they feel a love and a pleasure for the activity, and when they feel their participation has a positive influence on their health. Fitness staff should therefore find ways to focus their feedback and monitoring precisely on those aspects. Secondly, this study underlines the diversity of dropout typologies. A varied offer in terms of facilities and programmes is a good prevention especially for those clients who drop out seasonally. As for “forced dropouts”, staff should be trained to give tips to those clients who are constantly under time pressure and could continue working out at their working places with small and easy exercises. Finally, for clients corresponding to the passive continuation type, the fitness staff’s attitude should be absolutely client-oriented, so as to minimize the client’s perception of being in a “business” and thus focusing too much on the economical factors. Finally, staff should particularly pay attention to people who will potentially drop out for health-related reasons. In this case, personnel should be trained to detect the clients’ exercise stage (Prochaska & Markus, 1994), and their need for contact. Therefore, staff should take time to express understanding and show a genuine interest in the person (apart from his/her physical abilities), or maximising the human factor that – in those cases - is clearly the motivational focus. This interest might enable staff to discuss clients’ perceived barriers (health problems, pain, …) and eventually modify them. BIBLIOGRAPHY BANDURA,A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioural change. Psychological Review, 84, 191- 215. BUCKWORTH, J., & DISHMAN, R.K. (2002). “Interventions to change physical activity behaviour”. Exercise Psychology. Human Kinetics Editions. DECI, E.L. & RYAN, R.M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York, Plenum. NICHOLLS, J.G. (1989). The competitive ethos and democratic education. Cambridge, Harvard University Press. PIFFARETTI, M., LENZEN, B., & KAYSER, B. (2006). A first step in exploring reasons of dropout from mainstream fitness club membership: assessing new client’s characteristics. In: H. Hoppeler, T. Reilly, E. Tsolakidis, L. Gfeller, & S. Klossner (Eds.) ECSS Lausanne 2006. Book of Abstracts. p. 384. PROCHASKA, J.O., & MARCUS, B.H.(1994). The transtheoretical model: the applications to exercise. In R.K. Dishman (Ed.), Advances in exercise adherence (pp. 161-180). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics Books. ÉCOLE D’ÉDUCATION PHYSIQUE ET DE SPORT 10, Rue du Conseil Général CH – 1205 GENEVE B Dropout rates at different times (e.g. 3 and 6 months) after initial subscription C Potential relations between clients’ characteristics and their decision to continue or drop out from the programme Contact : Mattia Piffaretti, PhD, E-mail : [email protected]
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Transcript of Dropout rates swiss study
EXERCISE CONTINUATION AND DISCONTINUATION WITHIN SWISS FITNESS CLUBS
Mattia Piffaretti and Benoît Lenzen ISMMS / EEPS, Faculté de Médecine, University of Geneva, Switzerland.
INTRODUCTION
In today’s western society, more and more people are sedentary. This lifestyle is related with many health problems. Physical activity has been identified as a factor that enhances public health. On this particular issue, sport and exercise psychology has produced an important body of knowledge about the determinants of long term physical activity, and has come up with a series of theoretical models (for an overview: Piffaretti, Lenzen, and Kayser, 2006). Because most of the existing studies have investigated exercise perseverance as related to school physical education, competitive sports and community-based programmes, there is a lack of intelligence about the role of fitness clubs in promoting long-term physical activity. To contribute to a better knowledge about the efficiency of fitness club programmes to promote physical activity in the long term, we decided to conduct a study in Switzerland. The first step of the study (Piffaretti et al., 2006; step A in the schema below) allowed us to come up with the theoretically-based profiles of new fitness clients, that is people who had just subscribed in a fitness club.
STEPS OF THE INVESTIGATION: In the further steps of the study (B and C in the scheme above), we aimed to answer to the following research questions: - International studies state that 50% of fitness clients give up their membership 6 months after their subscription (Buckworth & Dishman, 2002). What are the figures and rates about the clients’ discontinuation in the Swiss fitness clubs ? - Are there different types of exercise discontinuation, and what do they imply in terms of long term active living ? - Which personal factors can potentially predict dropout from exercise programmes within a fitness club ?
METHODOLOGY An interview guide was elaborated to question fitness clients 3, 6 and 12 months after their initial subscription. The interview was held by phone, lasted from 10 to 20 minutes and included the following questions: (a) continuation or discontinuation, (b) the frequency of their visits each week (if they continued or dropped out), (c) the frequency of their visits to the fitness club at the time of their initial subscription, (d) the occurrence of contact with the fitness personnel, (e) the principal reasons for their continuation (or disengagement). 3 months after subscription, interviewers were able to contact 68 individuals (30 males and 38 females) out of the initial 156 individuals (43.58% of the initial sample). 6 months later, the same sample was down to 41 (25.94% of the initial sample), to which were added 18 new interviews of people who could not be reached after 3 months. Thus, the total number of people investigated 6 months after subscription was of 59 individuals. Descriptive analyses were conducted about dropout rates and their related reasons. Then, a more qualitative analysis was run on the basis of the interviews that had been taped and type-written verbatim. Finally, Khi square statistical analyses (indicated with ν, for data that were treated nominally) and ANOVA (Student T; for data treated numerically) were conducted to find out about relationships between factors that were assessed at subscription time and clients’ decisions to continue or quit their fitness club’s programme 6 months later.
RESULTS A) DROPOUT RATES Figure 1: evolution of participation rates 3, 6 and 12 months after fitness club subscription
100
78.78
66.66
82.05
69.23
61.11
55
65
75
85
95
Continuingafter 3 months
N=67
Continuingafter 6 months
N=59
Continuingafter 12
months N=39
%
Male
Female
Generally speaking, 74.5% of the fitness clients continue to visit the fitness club 6 months after subscription. Figure 1 illustrates the evolution of the participation rates while distinguishing male and female clients. Therefore, 25.4% had dropped out after 6 months. As illustrated in figure 2, 71% of the dropouts still continued physical activities outside of the fitness club, at times very regularly (from 1 to 3 times a week and more). 29% of the dropouts were “general dropouts”, that is they did not carry on with any kind of physical activity outside of the fitness club. Figure 2: Types of dropout (n=14; general vs specific)
Does exercise outside less than once a
week29%
Does exercise outside from 1
to 3 times a week35%
Does exercise outside more than 3 times a
week7%
Does not exercise at all
29%
B) TYPES OF DROPOUT Individual interviews allowed to qualify even more four different categories of dropouts: 1) Seasonal dropout: basically, clients tend to exercise in the fitness club only during the “cold” season (autumn, winter and spring), leaving summer for outdoor activities. In other words, these kinds of dropout are temporary. 2) Forced dropout: clients feel an obligation to cease their involvement because of factors they perceive as being out of control. “Lack of time” due to job responsibilities or professional obligations are typical reasons for forced dropout. In most cases, fitness membership is resumed when the clients set themselves new exercising goals. 3) Health-related dropout: clients evoke injury or illness to account for their withdrawal. These types of dropout nevertheless express additional complaints about other aspects of their health, including high social needs, and are associated with the presence of more extrinsic motivations, mainly affiliation. 4) Passive continuation: the client is not really keen about continuing his/her involvement, but nevertheless goes on visiting the centre “passively”. Typically, clients feel less motivated when they are confronted with the economical reality of a fitness club and their drawbacks (loss of services, decrease of fitness services / activities, loss of fitness personnel’s quality). Although passive continuation is not properly a dropout, it can be regarded as a “borderline case” of dropout, the first step towards a definitive withdrawal from the fitness club. C) PREDICTING FACTORS OF (DIS-)CONTINUATION The ANOVA and Khi square analyses allowed to highlight some possible predicting factors of continuation and dropout: - Attitude towards exercise: scores of negative attitude towards exercise are superior in dropouts (1.86) than in perseverance cases (1.45; Student T=-2.19, p=.03). Positive attitude was more notable in the perseverance cases (59 % of the individuals) than in the dropouts (only 26% had reported positive attitude) - Self-determined motivation: Dropouts are overrepresented among those people who start their involvement principally because they come with other friends (ν = 4.62, df=1, p<.05), that is for extrinsic reasons. Self-determined intention characterises most of the cases of exercise continuation. Principal reasons for continuation are in fact love of physical activity, pleasure to go to the fitness, perception to be in better shape and to feel healthier. - Age: Adolescents (17-25 years-olds) drop out more frequently (40%) than adults (19%) after a 6 months programme. - Stages of change: dropouts significantly outnumber cases of perseverance among those individuals who at the time of their subscription had “no practice in the last 6 months, with intention to begin” (ν = 7.81, df = 1, p<.01). Similarly, dropout rate was significantly higher for those who had practiced less than once a week in the 3 months previous to the interview (ν = 2.96, df=1, p<.10). During the fitness programme itself, dropout cases are significantly more frequent than continuation among individuals who practice less than once a week (p<.10). - Smoking habit: finally, the percentage of people who like smoking is significantly lower in the continuation group (11.36%) than in the dropout group (46.6%, ν = 6.85, df=2; p<.01). Not only do dropouts tend to smoke more than people who continued exercising, but they actually consume more cigarettes a day (20 in average) than the smokers in the continuation group (9.4 cigarettes a day).
DISCUSSION Dropout rates: Despite the methodological limitations of our study, the results suggest that the estimation of the international literature (50% dropout rate after 6 months) are not only over-
rated (only 25% drop out in our sample), but conceal a more complex reality. Actually, dropouts are rarely general, but rather “specific” (either seasonal or forced). Fitness clubs as promoters for physical activity: The consideration of different dropout typologies suggest that (moderately) high fitness dropout rates do not necessarily imply that fitness clubs fail to maintain people in exercise. A large majority of the clients seem actually animated by a self-determined will to exercise, which fosters long term motivation for physical activity – either within or without fitness clubs. Predicting factors of fitness membership discontinuation: The client at risk in Switzerland roughly corresponds to the following profile: a woman who comes to the fitness club with hardly quantifiable objectives (to look better, to lose weight, get to know people, and so on; this corroborates Goal achievement theory by Nicholls, 1984). This type of client tends to be a smoker who does not have a very high self-esteem of his/her physical skills and thus is not self-efficacious (Bandura, 1977). He/she has not been doing physical activities for more than 6 months, and sometimes even since the schooldays (see transtheoretical model, Prochaska & Marcus, 1994). He/she does not tend to come to the club on his/her own will, but in search of social contact (self-determination theory, Deci & Ryan, 1985). Thus, our data seem to confirm some of the major theoretical predictions. A
Description of the characteristics of new fitness club clients at the time of their initial subscription
CONCLUSIONS The present study attempted to assess attrition rate within Swiss fitness clubs and factors predicting dropout. The underlying interest of these research questions was to highlight the way fitness clubs can also be regarded as places to promote long term physical activity in a wide range of clients. The results of our investigation open up some interesting perspectives for practical application. First of all, knowledge about the reasons for continuation and dropout should provide the practitioner with a first basis for intervention. Clients pursue fitness exercise when they feel their physical shape is getting better, when they feel a love and a pleasure for the activity, and when they feel their participation has a positive influence on their health. Fitness staff should therefore find ways to focus their feedback and monitoring precisely on those aspects. Secondly, this study underlines the diversity of dropout typologies. A varied offer in terms of facilities and programmes is a good prevention especially for those clients who drop out seasonally. As for “forced dropouts”, staff should be trained to give tips to those clients who are constantly under time pressure and could continue working out at their working places with small and easy exercises. Finally, for clients corresponding to the passive continuation type, the fitness staff’s attitude should be absolutely client-oriented, so as to minimize the client’s perception of being in a “business” and thus focusing too much on the economical factors. Finally, staff should particularly pay attention to people who will potentially drop out for health-related reasons. In this case, personnel should be trained to detect the clients’ exercise stage (Prochaska & Markus, 1994), and their need for contact. Therefore, staff should take time to express understanding and show a genuine interest in the person (apart from his/her physical abilities), or maximising the human factor that – in those cases - is clearly the motivational focus. This interest might enable staff to discuss clients’ perceived barriers (health problems, pain, …) and eventually modify them.
BIBLIOGRAPHY BANDURA,A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioural change. Psychological Review, 84, 191-215. BUCKWORTH, J., & DISHMAN, R.K. (2002). “Interventions to change physical activity behaviour”. Exercise Psychology. Human Kinetics Editions. DECI, E.L. & RYAN, R.M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York, Plenum. NICHOLLS, J.G. (1989). The competitive ethos and democratic education. Cambridge, Harvard University Press. PIFFARETTI, M., LENZEN, B., & KAYSER, B. (2006). A first step in exploring reasons of dropout from mainstream fitness club membership: assessing new client’s characteristics. In: H. Hoppeler, T. Reilly, E. Tsolakidis, L. Gfeller, & S. Klossner (Eds.) ECSS Lausanne 2006. Book of Abstracts. p. 384. PROCHASKA, J.O., & MARCUS, B.H.(1994). The transtheoretical model: the applications to exercise. In R.K. Dishman (Ed.), Advances in exercise adherence (pp. 161-180). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics Books.
ÉCOLE D’ÉDUCATION PHYSIQUE ET DE SPORT
10, Rue du Conseil Général
CH – 1205 GENEVE
B Dropout rates at different times (e.g. 3 and 6 months) after initial
subscription
C Potential relations between
clients’ characteristics and their decision to continue or drop out
from the programme
Contact : Mattia Piffaretti, PhD, E-mail : [email protected]
