Physical Activity Can Enhance Life (PACE-Life): results from a 10-week walking intervention for individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders

Background Premature mortality in individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs) is largely due to high rates of chronic health conditions. Although exercise has been shown to improve health in this population, scalable and accessible interventions are limited. Aim To examine the impact of Physical Activity Can Enhance Life (PACE-Life), a novel walking intervention, on physical activity, and on secondary outcomes of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), physical health, autonomous motivation, social support, and quality of life. Method Sixteen individuals with SSDs were enrolled in a 10-week open trial. The intervention included walking groups, home-based walks, Fitbit use, and goal-setting and if-then plans. Within-group effect sizes were calculated to represent changes from baseline to post-test and 1-month follow-up. Results Participants increased self-reported weekly walking minutes and decreased daily hours spent sitting; however, Fitbit-recorded exercise behavior changed only minimally. There were also improvements in secondary outcomes including autonomous motivation and hip circumference. CRF improved only minimally, and findings were relatively unchanged with outliers removed from the full sample. Conclusions This open trial demonstrates modest improvements in key parameters of exercise behavior and physical health from participating in PACE-Life. Future research should assess the efficacy of this intervention in a randomized controlled trial.