BRISBANE, Australia, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- Questionnaires can help reveal whether patients are motivated to exercise to help improve their health, an Australian study has found.
The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, asked 255 patients being tested for probable obstructed sleep apnea, or OSA, to fill out a questionnaire to assess their intention to exercise.
"You'd expect that folks with no contemplation of exercise would exercise less, and we found that was the case," lead study author Simon Smith of the University of Queensland in Brisbane said in a statement. "Our study shows that a proportion of patients are prepared to increase their exercise, and we think that they should be better supported to do this."
Smith reports a larger proportion of patients are not ready to increase their exercise.
"Specific strategies may be needed to help patients to increase their level of exercise," Smith says. "We think this study adds to the 'Sleep plus exercise plus diet equals health' message."
OSA is caused when tissue in the back of the throat collapses and keeps air from getting into the lungs and often linked to increased fat in neck.
