Participation in sports and exercise has been shown to help prevent the
development of substance use and abuse among adolescents. The protective
mechanisms may involve mood, self-efficacy or simply the incompatibility
between peak athletic performance and acute intoxication. In addition, prior
research has found that aerobic exercise is useful for reducing tension and
stress during recovery from substance use disorders (Read & Brown, 2003).
However, fitness and exercise levels among substance-dependent individuals have
not yet been examined. As such, we chose to characterize baseline exercise and
fitness levels for individuals entering outpatient substance abuse treatment as
a prelude to examining activity, weight and other health changes during
outpatient treatment. The NASA/Johnson Space Center Physical Activity Rating (PA-R)
scale was developed to provide an estimate of a participant’s fitness level
using a self-reported regular physical activity, along with height, weight, age
and gender (George et al., 1997). The
PA-R was administered to 109 consecutively screened treatment-seeking
individuals with cocaine, alcohol, or combined cocaine and alcohol (CAD)
dependence. Additional data on height and weight, gender and race were gathered.
Overall, fitness levels were below average for all subjects, and mean BMI was
29.24, with 43 (39.45%) subjects classified as obese, 44 (40.37%) as overweight
and only 22 (20.18%) as normal weight. PA-R findings indicate that fitness
levels for participants were average or below. Taken together, findings indicate
that there is substantial room for improving fitness and exercise among treatment-seeking
substance-dependent subjects.