Influencing basic behavioral mechanisms of action while targeting daily walking in sedentary adults at risk for cardiovascular disease: randomised factorial design protocol.

Introduction: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality worldwide, though it may be prevented by increasing physical activity (PA). When behaviour change techniques (BCTs) are bundled together, they increase PA, though which individual BCTs increase PA (and the behavioural mechanism of action (MoA) responsible for said increase) have not been studied. The aim of this study is to conduct a randomised factorial experiment to determine which of four BCTs significantly engage the proposed MoA-self-efficacy for PA-in adults at risk for CVD.