Written by: Mia Cooper
A great way to celebrate American Heart Month is by discussing an awesome health promotion activity and supporting physical wellness! Physical Activity is an important protective factor for cardiovascular disease and hypertension, but there are many barriers that can get in the way of an individual's ability to exercise efficiently or at all. This week, I sat down with Michael Onu. Michael is a current PhD student studying Social and Behavioral Sciences at Brown University’s School of Public Health. His primary research area is Physical Activity promotion in underserved populations. Michael is not only an intelligent scholar, but a friend of mine and it was a privilege to chat with him about his important work.
Onu’s original exposure to physical activity came from being a competitive runner both in middle, high school and then at his undergraduate institution, Rowen University. Where his initial interest was in biokinetics, or the study of human movement and kinetics, he found that he had a more specific interest in its interaction with psychology. Although his original work was done in smoking secession-specifically through the use of smartphone apps, Onu has moved to studying health behavior and weight loss. In the fall of 2024, he started his PhD at Brown University to look at physical activity promotion interventions. He has recently applied for a grant to complete a sub-analysis of a physical activity program that offers financial incentive contingent on achieving a certain amount of physical activity. This grant looks at physical activity among African American individuals compared to white individuals. Onus work is tied to more health promotion and working to find an intervention that would benefit this population. He's interested in looking at variables and understanding what drives this disparity and focuses on black adults to help them to increase Physical activities and help them reduce more lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and Heart disease.
In our conversation, we got into the efficacy of interventions and what makes one a good one. Onu described using monetary incentives to get people to exercise. He gave me the example of how insurance companies sometimes will offer money if people go to the gym a certain amount of times-a sort of payout because if you better care of yourself you would (in theory) go to the doctor less. Some of his work related to randomizing groups and paying participants to go to the YMCA. Within the groups, some people were paid no money,, some $50, $100, or $200. They looked to see if the financial incentive (at any level) increased a commitment to working out. The hope is that if people begin going, they will be more likely to go after the extrinsic motivator is removed. He explained how the different groups are to establish what is called a “dose response relationship”, meaning if people respond just as well to the $50 as they do to $200, it wouldn't make sense to pay people more than is salient.
Onu describes how physical activity is a primary modifiable risk factor which means it will be quite susceptible to interventions. This is an important thing to understand as only 46% of adults meet the aerobic activity goals…that's less than half of all adults in the United States! When chatting about barriers, Onu described how they are quite vast and multifaceted. Most of these barriers do not act independently and have systematic roots. For example, a large barrier to physical activity is the availability of space to exercise. There may not be safe roads to run or walk on, available green space, and gym memberships can be very expensive. This could be coupled with a lack of health literacy or not knowing how to work out effectively. Finally there can be a lack of time, motivation and adjustment not enjoying it. “There's an emotional response to physical activity” Onu shared, “If people like something, they will do more of it”. Physical Activity can be difficult to begin because it is uncomfortable and unenjoyable, so why would somebody do that instead of anything else. “I see a problem in the literature for physical activity Promotion”, Onu said, “They tend to be people who work set jobs like a 9-5 and have more flexibility and autonomy. I'm interested in looking at leveraging cell phone activity to increase promotion”. Onu explained wanting to use technology, specifically cell phone technology, to help people increase physical activity. We talked about how most people have a cell phone in some capacity and it really can be used as a tool for so much health promotion.
The last thing I asked Michael was about what he hopes to do in this field, as a first year PhD student, he has a lot of time to elicit important change. “We have to find an initiative between what is effective and what is practical”, Onu said to me as he expressed his hope to create interventions that are accessible, inexpensive and effective for all different populations. You can read a bit more about Michael Onu’s work at the links below!
Michaels Publications and Work
Gupta-Louis, S. K., O’Hagan, B., Raisman, N., Prieto, G., Onu, M. C., Marcus, B., & von
Ash, T. (in preparation). A content analysis of exit interviews from a physical activity
intervention for mothers whose children play sports.
Hagerman, C. J., Onu, M. C., Crane, N. T., Butryn, M. L. & Forman, E. M. (2024).
Psychological responses to daily weight gain during behavioral weight loss treatment. Journal
of Behavioral Medicine
*Murphy, C. M., *Onu, M. C., Goodwin, C., Williams, D. M. & Tidey, J. W. (2023). Acute
effects of exercise among individuals with schizophrenia who smoke cigarettes. Addictive
Behaviors, 107749.
Forman, E. M., Butryn, M. L., Chwyl, C., Crane, M. M., Dart, H., Hagerman, C. J., Manasse,
S. M., Onu, M. C., Sun, J. H., Veling, H., & Zhang, F. (2023). Gamification and
neurotraining to engage men in behavioral weight loss: Protocol for a factorial randomized
controlled trial. Contemporary Clinical Trials, 124, 107010.
Mioskowska, M., Stevenson, D., Onu, M.C., & Trkov, M. (2020). Compressed gas actuated
knee assistive exoskeleton for slip-induced fall prevention during human walking. In 2020
IEEE/ASME International
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