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. 2016 Jun 17;18(6):e171. doi: 10.2196/jmir.5269

Table 2.

Baseline characteristics of the participants who set goals and those who did not.

Characteristica Goal-setting group (n=1212) Non–goal-setting group (n=1093)
Age in years, mean (SD) 52.34 (12.21) 51.28 (13.73)
Gender, female, n (%) 862 (71.11) 689 (63.04)b
Education level, n (%)


Secondary school or lower 391 (32.3) 397 (37.2)c

Vocational degree 537 (44.3) 421 (39.5)

University degree 284 (23.4) 249 (23.3)
Body weight (kg), mean (SD) 75.5 (14.4) 75.6 (14.8)
BMId (kg/m2), mean (SD) 25.2 (4.2) 25.0 (4.4)
Subjective health, n (%)


Poor 13 (1.1) 16 (1.6)

Fair 164 (13.5) 144 (13.5)

Good 796 (65.7) 654 (61.5)

Very good 187 (15.4) 188 (17.7)

Excellent 52 (4.3) 61 (5.7)
Physical activity, n (%)


Inactive 274 (22.6) 206 (19.7)

Suboptimally active (1-4 days per week) 340 (28.1) 292 (27.9)

Norm active (≥5 days per week) 598 (49.3) 547 (52.3)
Exercise, n (%)


Inactive 303 (25.0) 239 (22.9)

Suboptimally active (1 day per week) 235 (19.4) 210 (20.1)

Norm active (≥2 days per week) 674 (55.6) 596 (57.0)
Healthy nutrition, range 0-30, mean (SD) 23.6 (4.6) 23.6 (4.8)
Unhealthy nutrition, range 0-14, mean (SD) 5.8 (3.9) 5.4 (3.8)e
Smoking, n (%)


Smoker 85 (7.0) 80 (7.7)

Ex-smoker 535 (44.1) 455 (44.0)

Nonsmoker 592 (48.8) 499 (48.3)
Alcohol, n (%)


Abstainer 257 (21.2) 223 (21.6)

Drinker (1-5 days per week) 702 (57.9) 571 (55.3)

Frequent drinker (≥6 days per week) 253 (20.9) 238 (23.1)
Sleep pattern, n (%)


Poor sleeper 268 (22.2) 208 (20.5)

Suboptimal sleeper 557 (46.1) 437 (43.1)

Good sleeper 384 (31.8) 369 (36.4)
Sleep hygiene score, mean (SD) 10.6 (4.0) 10.0 (4.2)
Satisfaction with life, range 5-35, mean (SD) 25.0 (6.3) 25.2 (6.3)
Overall lifestyle score, range 8-24, mean (SD) 17.4 (2.7) 17.7 (2.6)c
Personality questionnaires, mean (SD)


DGSESf (range 10-40) 32.0 (4.3) 32.3 (4.8)

Positive Affect (range 10-50) 33.9 (5.2) 33.7 (5.5)

Negative Affect (range 10-50) 21.1 (6.1) 20.4 (5.8)

Self-Control Scale (range 36-180) 125.6 (13.2) 126.7 (13.1)

a Mean (SD) is presented for continuous and ordinal variables, and n (%) is presented for categorical variables. For healthy nutrition, satisfaction with life, overall lifestyle score, DGSES, Positive Affect, and the Self-Control Scale, a higher score represents better performance; for unhealthy nutrition and Negative Affect, a lower score represents better performance.

bP ≤.001.

cP<.05.

d BMI: body mass index.

eP<.01.

f DGSES: Dutch General Self-Efficacy Scale.