Abstract
Background: People with HIV are aging rapidly and face accelerated aging-related comorbidities, including cardiovascular diseases and cognitive impairment, due to prolonged HIV-associated inflammation. Physical activity (PA) is a well-established intervention to mitigate these risks; yet, most older people with HIV remain sedentary. Despite considerable efforts to understand PA determinants and design interventions for people with HIV, outcomes have been suboptimal.
Objective: The overarching goal of this project is to use an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) approach to capture ecologically valid relationships between the personal experiences of older people with HIV and PA, as they engage in their normal daily activities.
Methods: This study will adopt a 2-phase mixed methods research design. The first phase focuses on developing the EMA questionnaire through in-depth interviews with older people with HIV to explore the relevance of candidate real-time predictors of PA, identified using the capacity, opportunity, motivation—behavioral framework and literature review, to their daily experiences. These interviews will validate and refine the constructs for the EMA survey. In phase 2, a 2-week EMA study will collect data from 70 sedentary older people with HIV through smartphone surveys (3 times per day) and Fitbit-measured step counts and moderate to vigorous intensity PA minutes. Multilevel modeling will be used to examine how these factors predict daily PA levels.
Results: This research project was funded in June 2024. To date, 13 eligible participants have completed the qualitative interviews. All participants agreed that the constructs of EMA survey are relevant to their PA experiences and acknowledged their time-varying nature. On the basis of the participants’ input, the EMA survey has been finalized.
Conclusions: By advancing the understanding of real-time determinants of PA, this study addresses a critical gap in the literature and offers a foundation for designing just-in-time adaptive interventions that provide tailored, context-specific support to enhance PA engagement and promote healthy aging among older people with HIV.
Notes
Open Access Details:
This is an open access article originally published under the terms of a Creative Commons License, which permits the Sigma Repository to post a copy in its collections. The license is attached to this item record; please click on the license for further details.
Original Article Citation:
Song D, Hightow-Weidman L, Xu T, Yang Y, Wang J Development of an Ecological Momentary Assessment Study to Identify Real-Time Predictors of Physical Activity Among Older People With HIV: Protocol for a 2-Phase Mixed Methods Study, JMIR Res Protoc 2025;14:e81238
doi: 10.2196/81238 PMID: 41364912 PMCID: 12728394
No changes have been made to this article.
Sigma Membership
Non-member
Lead Author Affiliation
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi, Texas, USA
Type
Article
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Exploratory
Research Approach
Mixed/Multi Method Research
Keywords:
HIV, HIV-Positive Persons, Older People, Physical Activity, Predictors, Ecological Momentary Assessment, Ecological Momentary Assessments (Clinical Psychology), Protocol
Recommended Citation
Song, Dan; Hightow-Weidman, Lisa; Xu, Tuzhen; Yang, Yijiong; and Wang, Jing, "Development of an Ecological Momentary Assessment Study to Identify Real-Time Predictors of Physical Activity Among Older People With HIV: Protocol for a 2-Phase Mixed Methods Study" (2026). Individual Articles. 53.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/individual_articles/53
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Publisher
JMIR Publications Inc.
Version
Publisher's Version
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All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record. All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository. All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Review Type
External Review: Previously Published Material
Acquisition
Indexed Previously Published Material (Per Creative Commons License)
Date of Issue
2026-10-06
Full Text of Presentation
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Funder
The DAISY Foundation
Description
Funding Acknowledgement: Dr. Dan Song was the recipient of a 2024 Health Equity Grant for Addressing Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) provided by the DAISY Foundation.