Ahmed J Romain

Ahmed J Romain
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Ahmed verified their affiliation via an institutional email.
  • PhD
  • Professor (Associate) at Université de Montréal

About

186
Publications
65,681
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2,964
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Introduction
I'm a researcher in physical activity science. My research interests are related to physical activity, motivation, prevention and management of obesity in people with severe mental illness.
Current institution
Université de Montréal
Current position
  • Professor (Associate)
Additional affiliations
October 2013 - January 2015
Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Montpellier
Position
  • PostDoc Position
January 2010 - October 2013
Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Montpellier
Position
  • PhD Student

Publications

Publications (186)
Preprint
Purpose. To test the feasibility and acceptability of a remote physical activity (PA) intervention coupled with motivational text messages among women experiencing severe depressive and/or anxiety symptoms during or after breast cancer (BC) treatment. Methods and materials. A three-phase-single-case experimental study design (16-week) was conducted...
Preprint
Laboratory studies suggest that high concentrations of particles matter (diameter<2.5 mm [PM2.5]) and ozone (O3) may reduce sport performances at short term. However, a systematic review of literature examining whether air pollution has an effect on sport performances in real situations is missing.Seven databased were searched for articles which ex...
Preprint
Laboratory studies suggest that high concentrations of particles matter (diameter<2.5 mm [PM2.5]) and ozone (O3) may reduce sport performances at short term. However, a systematic review of literature examining whether air pollution has an effect on sport performances in real situations is missing.Seven databased were searched for articles which ex...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background: One in two people with a severe mental illness also has a substance use disorder. This frequent combination highlights the complexity of care required for these individuals, as conditions often interact and exacerbate each other. The accumulation of chronic conditions (either psychiatric or somatic) is defined as multimorbidity (two or...
Article
Full-text available
Aim This study aims to determine the effect of physical activity on cognitive restraint, uncontrolled eating and emotional eating in individuals with a psychotic disorder. Methods Twenty‐seven participants with a psychotic disorder (55% male; mean age: 30 ± 7.5 years; Caucasian: 66.7%; schizophrenia spectrum disorders: 44.4%; bipolar disorder with...
Preprint
Background: Women with breast cancer live with the burden of the disease, its treatment, and the psychosocial consequences of illness, often contributing to the experience of psychological distress. At this end, physical activity (PA) is an evidence-based strategy to decrease depressive and anxiety symptoms. However, no study has yet investigated h...
Preprint
Background: Women with breast cancer live with the burden of the disease, its treatment, and the psychosocial consequences of illness, often contributing to the experience of psychological distress. At this end, physical activity (PA) is an evidence-based strategy to decrease depressive and anxiety symptoms. However, no study has yet investigated h...
Preprint
Self-efficacy, which is a key determinant of physical activity (PA), fluctuates in a specific way for each individual and is influenced by emotional or physiological states. However, studies have only investigated the temporal variability of self-efficacy at the between-person level and excluded people with severe psychological distress, whereas de...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background and hypothesis In people with psychotic disorders, exercise interventions are known to improve psychotic symptoms, however, the mechanisms underlying these effects are unclear. In the network approach, mental disorders are conceptualized as complex systems of interacting symptoms. In this context, exercise interventions could modify the...
Preprint
ObjectiveA good quality of sleep is essential within the context of breast cancer. Nonetheless, poor sleep quality is highly prevalent in breast cancer patients, particularly in women with psychological distress. Physical activity is recommended to improve sleep quality in the context of breast cancer. However, no previous physical activity interve...
Article
Full-text available
Background Physical activity (PA) can play an important role in optimizing metabolic/bariatric surgery (MBS) outcomes. However, many MBS patients have difficulty increasing PA, necessitating the development of theory-driven counseling interventions. This study aimed to (1) assess the feasibility and acceptability of the TELEhealth BARIatric behavio...
Preprint
Full-text available
Introduction: Physical activity (PA) interventions for women with breast cancer (BC) are extensively A three-phase-single-case experimental study design was conducted among 18 women with BC reporting high levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms: A (pre-intervention; 2-week), B (intervention; 12-week), A’(post-intervention; 2-week). Our interventi...
Preprint
Purpose. To test the feasibility and acceptability of a remote physical activity (PA) intervention coupled with motivational text messages among women experiencing severe depressive and/or anxiety symptoms during or after breast cancer (BC) treatment. Methods and materials. A three-phase-single-case experimental study design (16-week) was conducted...
Article
The Signature Biobank is a longitudinal repository of biospecimen, psychological, sociodemographic, and diagnostic data that was created in 2012. The Signature Consortium represents a group of approximately one hundred Quebec-based transdisciplinary clinicians and research scientists with various expertise in the field of psychiatry. The objective...
Article
Notre revue scientifique indique que les personnes qui intègrent des activités physiques dans leur traitement pour la dépendance connaissent une réduction plus significative de leur consommation de substance par rapport à celles qui n'en incluent pas
Preprint
Full-text available
Background Students enrolling in higher education often adopt lifestyles linked to worse mental health, potentially contributing to the peak age onset of mental health problems in early adulthood. However, extensive research is limited by focusing on single lifestyle behaviors, including single time points, within limited cultural contexts, and foc...
Article
Full-text available
Background Social restrictions and their possible impact on lifestyle make people with multimorbidity (≥2 co-existing chronic conditions) more vulnerable to poor perceived mental health and health behaviours modifications during the COVID-19 pandemic. Objective To understand the mental health status and health behaviour modifications among individ...
Article
Full-text available
Physical activity (PA) is recommended to optimize well-functioning in people with schizophrenia. PA has been found to improve quality of life, general symptomatology, depression, anxiety and stress symptoms, global and social functioning. In PA research, most of the interventions are based on one-on-one interventions but there is poor information a...
Article
Full-text available
Background Obesity is associated with multimorbidity and both, have an impact on physical and mental health. Previous studies suggested a possible relationship between obesity, multimorbidity and suicidal spectrum, but few studies focused on this association notably in young adults. The aim of the present study was to examine the co-occurring effec...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose After metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS), many patients have excess skin (ES), which can cause inconveniences. Identifying factors related to ES quantity and inconveniences is crucial to inform interventions. The aim of this study was to identify sociodemographic, physical, psychosocial, and behavioral factors associated with ES quantity...
Chapter
Le présent chapitre présente les principales connaissances au sujet de la santé physique des personnes aux prises avec un trouble mental sévère. Les auteurs ont priorisé les études avec la plus grande rigueur méthodologique comme les méta-analyses. Il dresse un état des connaissances simplifié des enjeux de la santé physique en rappelant son impact...
Preprint
Full-text available
Introduction After metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS), many patients have excess skin (ES), which can cause inconveniences. Identifying factors related to ES quantity and inconveniences is crucial to inform interventions. The aim of this study was to identify sociodemographic, physical, psychosocial, and behavioral factors associated with ES qua...
Article
Full-text available
Substance use disorder is a worldwide issue that entails negative health and physical activity is a promising complementary therapy for alleviating the consequences. The objective of this reviews is to characterize physical activity interventions offered in the literature and explore their effects during treatment for people with substance use diso...
Article
The objectives were a) to test whether a Processes of Change (POC)-personalized Transtheoretical model (TTM)-based intervention could increase physical activity (PA) among inactive adults, and b) to examine whether the intervention increased the level of TTM theoretical constructs. The following hypotheses were formulated: 1) PA levels will be sign...
Preprint
Full-text available
Affective response during physical activity can partly determine its adherence in adults with severe obesity living or not with a mental disorder. This study examined affective responses to physical activity in adults with severe obesity living or not with a mental disorder. Two groups (24 adults with severe obesity, body mass index = 44.4 kg/m², S...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Data on meeting the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for adults (24-H Guidelines) and associations with health indicators by body mass index (BMI) class are needed to support public health surveillance. The aim of this study was to describe the proportion of Canadian adults meeting individual and various combinations of the 24-H Gu...
Preprint
Full-text available
Substance use disorder is a worldwide issue that entails negative health and physical activity is a promising complementary therapy for alleviating the consequences. The objective of this reviews is to characterize physical activity interventions offered in the literature and explore their effects during treatment for people with substance use diso...
Preprint
BACKGROUND Regular physical activity (PA) is recommended to optimize metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS) weight and health outcomes. However, more than 70% of patients have low PA levels before MBS that persist after MBS. Whilst behavioural interventions delivered face-to-face have shown promise for increasing PA among MBS patients, many patients...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Regular physical activity (PA) is recommended to optimize weight and health outcomes in patients who have undergone metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS). However, >70% of patients have low PA levels before MBS that persist after MBS. Although behavioral interventions delivered face-to-face have shown promise for increasing PA among pa...
Article
Full-text available
Physical activity (PA) motives are associated with both moderate‐to‐vigorous intensity PA (MVPA) and mental health. Studies examining whether PA motives relate directly to mental health or indirectly through MVPA are lacking. This study examined the direct effect of five PA motives (i.e., enjoyment, competence, fitness, social, appearance) on menta...
Article
Full-text available
According to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change experts, recent changes across the climate system are unprecedented, and the next decades are the most decisive in human history to drastically reduce global annual greenhouse gas emissions. This text argues that sport and exercise psychology, as a scientific discipline, needs to address anthro...
Preprint
Full-text available
Objective: The objectives were a) to test whether a Processes of Change (POC)-personalized Transtheoretical model (TTM)-based intervention could increase physical activity (PA) among inactive adults, and b) to examine whether the intervention increased the level of TTM theoretical constructs. The following hypotheses were formulated: 1) PA levels w...
Poster
Full-text available
Contexte: L’activité physique utilisée comme complément à un traitement en santé mentale a de nombreux bienfaits appuyés par la littérature scientifique. Par contre, on n’en sait peu quant à ses effets perçus pendant un traitement pour trouble de l’usage d’une substance. Objectif: Mieux comprendre la perception des usagers face à l’activité physiqu...
Presentation
La présentation était dans un format de 180 sec. Nous devions présenter nos résultats de recherche en les vulgarisant. Ma recherche a mis en lumière que l'activité physique pratiquée pendant un traitement pour la dépendance était vue comme un facteur de protection contre la rechute à la suite de celle-ci.
Article
Although subjects with severe obesity need specific interventions, knowledge about their eating behavior, physical and mental health profiles remains insufficient. This cross-sectional study aimed to identify profiles of individuals with severe obesity based on clinical, psychological and eating behavior characteristics. We included 126 participant...
Preprint
Full-text available
Obesity is considered as one of the entrance point of multimorbidity and has an impact on physical and mental health. While some evidence points out to a possible relationship between obesity, multimorbidity and suicidal spectrum, little provide a direct association. Thus, the aim of the present study was to examine the co-occurring effect of both...
Chapter
Schizophrenia and other disorders of the schizophrenia spectrum are the 8th leading cause of disability in the world and affect 1–3% of the general population. These disorders are characterized by the presence of several symptoms, including negative symptoms such as decreased motivation. This type of symptom is particularly troublesome for people s...
Article
Objectives In recent years, issues related to physical health took on a major role in the care of youth who experienced a first episode psychosis (FEP). Compared to the general population, people with a psychotic disorder have a reduced life expectancy of 15 years, with physical health problems accounting for 60 to 70% of that part. With the increa...
Article
Full-text available
The objective of the present study was to estimate whether physical activity on one day was associated with both sleep quality and quantity the following night and to examine to what extent sleep on one night was associated with physical activity the next day. We collected data from 33 young adults who were overweight or obese and consistently wore...
Article
Full-text available
Background Although the benefits of physical activity (PA) are well known, physical inactivity is highly prevalent among people with obesity. The objective of this systematic review was to i) appraise knowledge on PA motives, barriers, and preferences in individuals with obesity, and ii) quantify the most frequently reported PA motives, barriers an...
Presentation
Full-text available
Contexte : Le confinement et son impact possible sur les habitudes de vies rendent les personnes ayant une multimorbidité physique plus vulnérable face à une altération de leur santé mentale qui persisterait au-delà du confinement. Objectif : Établir la prévalence de multimorbidité et analyser le lien entre la présence d'une santé mentale altérée a...
Preprint
Background. Although the benefits of physical activity (PA) are well known, physical inactivity is high in people with obesity. The objective of this systematic review was to i) appraise knowledge on PA motives, barriers, and preferences in individuals with obesity, and ii) quantify the most frequently reported PA motives, barriers and preferences...
Article
Considérant le fait que les activités physiques et sportives (APS) peuvent à la fois améliorer et aggraver la situation en matière de changements climatiques, notre équipe a récemment publié une revue systématique faisant la synthèse des liens entre changement climatique et l’APS. Cette revue systématique compile plus de 60 articles. L’objectif de...
Article
Full-text available
Background Climate change impacts are associated with dramatic consequences for human health and threaten physical activity (PA) behaviors.Objective The aims of this systematic review were to present the potential bidirectional associations between climate change impacts and PA behaviors in humans and to propose a synthesis of the literature throug...
Preprint
Full-text available
The objective of the present study was to estimate whether physical activity (i.e., step counts) on one day was associated with both sleep quality (i.e., sleep efficiency) and quantity (i.e., total sleep time) the following night and to examine to what extent sleep on one night was associated with physical activity the next day. We collected data c...
Article
The day-to-day variations of sleep and physical activity are associated with various health outcomes in adults, and previous studies suggested a bidirectional association between these behaviors. The daily associations between sleep and physical activity have been examined in observational or interventional contexts. The primary goal of the current...
Article
The day-to-day variations of sleep and physical activity are associated with various health outcomes in adults, and previous studies suggested a bidirectional association between these behaviors. The daily associations between sleep and physical activity have been examined in observational or interventional contexts. The primary goal of the current...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction: Physical activity (PA) is recommended to improve physical health in people with psychosis, however, most of them are inactive. Objectives: The objectives of the study were to assess the feasibility of a four-week brief theory-based intervention to improve PA in men with psychosis and obesity. Methods: A Quasi- experimental pre- post d...
Preprint
Physical activity (PA) is recommended to improve physical health in psychosis, however, most of them are inactive. The objective of the study was to assess the feasibility and efficacy of a four-week brief intervention to improve PA in men with psychosis and obesity. Feasibility, the participation and the drop-out intervention rate were evaluated....
Article
Objectives It has been suggested that taking physical activity (PA) preferences into account would facilitate PA initiation and maintenance in people with serious mental illness. The objective of the present study was to describe the PA preferences and barriers of individuals with serious mental illness. Equipment and methods Participants complete...
Article
Background: This study aimed to explore the preferences, self-efficacy to overcome barriers and motives for physical activity of individuals with severe obesity (body mass index ≥35 kg/m²). Methods: 44 adults with severe obesity (50.5 ± 13.3 years, 80% female) consented to participate in this study. Accelerometers, the 6-minute walking test, and qu...
Preprint
The day-to-day variations of sleep and physical activity are associated with various health outcomes in adults, and previous studies suggested a bidirectional association between these behaviors. The daily associations between sleep and physical activity have been examined in observational or interventional contexts. The primary goal of the current...
Article
Motivational theory-based interventions are known to be effective for increasing physical activity (PA) in the general population but their effects in people with severe mental illness are poorly understood. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis on the effect of these interventions on PA and cardiometabolic risk factors. A systematic search of ra...
Article
Full-text available
Contexte Depuis plusieurs semaines maintenant, les gouvernements de différents pays dans le monde effectuent des activités de communication de masse en émettant des recommandations de confinement et de distanciation physique et sociale afin de limiter la pandémie de COVID-19. Cependant, dans différents pays, on assiste à des scènes de regroupement...
Article
Full-text available
Commentaries on Viewpoint by Nicolò et al., 2020 May 15: 1447-1449 : "Time to reconsider how ventilation is regulated above the respiratory compensation point during incremental exercise"
Preprint
POST PRINT : https://avuer.hypotheses.org/files/2021/05/Bernard-2021-Climate-change-physical-activity-and-sport-a-systematic-review.pdf The climate change manifestations are associated with dramatic consequences for human health and threat physical activity behaviors.Objective The aims of this systematic review were to present the potential bidirec...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Physical inactivity is a key contributor to the global burden of disease and disproportionately impacts the wellbeing of people experiencing mental illness. Increases in physical activity are associated with improvements in symptoms of mental illness and reduction in cardiometabolic risk. Reliable and valid clinical tools that assess p...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose: While a healthy lifestyle would be an asset to people experiencing psychotic disorders, not all mental health professionals provide counselling regarding healthy behaviours, such as physical activity, healthy nutrition, and tobacco cessation. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to investigate the factors associated with healt...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Physical inactivity is a key contributor to the global burden of disease and disproportionately impacts the wellbeing of people experiencing mental illness. Increases in physical activity are associated with improvements in symptoms of mental illness and reduction in cardiometabolic risk. Reliable and valid clinical tools that assess ph...
Article
Adults with severe obesity have poorer health, are less active and spend more time sedentary compared to people with a lower body mass index (BMI). There is a pressing need to understand the factors associated with low physical activity (PA) and excessive sedentary time to develop more effective behaviour change interventions for this population. T...
Article
We read with great interest the article by Şekerci and Kitiş [1] describing a Transtheoretical Model (TTM) based intervention delivered by motivational interviews to improve physical exercise in women with diabetes. Although the TTM has been regularly criticized, the Şekerci and Kitiş [1] study illustrates that TTM interventions are effective to im...
Preprint
This letter highlights three points about a published study of Şekerci and Kitiş: 1- TTM-based interventions to promote PA in clinical practices work, 2- implementation is generally not based on the revised TTM assumptions, 3- the lack of details and information provided about the intervention represent an important obstacle to future reproducibili...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background: Physical inactivity is a key contributor to the global burden of disease and disproportionately impacts the wellbeing of people experiencing mental illness. Increases in physical activity are associated with improvements in symptoms of mental illness and reduction in cardiometabolic risk. Reliable and valid clinical tools that assess ph...
Article
Full-text available
Walking is an effective way to initiate physical activity among individuals with severe mental illness. However, factors related to walking and sedentary behaviours are not well-known in this population. The objective of the present cross-sectional study was to analyze the potential (non)modifiable sociodemographic, anthropometric and sociocognitiv...
Article
Full-text available
Background Obesity is known to be associated with poor mental health. Studies suggested that multimorbidity might explain the consequences of obesity on mental health. The objective of the present study was to examine to what extent physical multimorbidity and the severity of obesity were associated with mental health and with mental disorders. Me...
Article
Le tableau ci-dessous propose une traduction française de la taxonomie des techniques de changement de comportement élaborée par Michie et al. (2013). Cette taxonomie renvoie aux techniques de changement de comportement (acronyme anglais 'BCT' signifiant Behaviour Change Techniques) qui correspondent aux composantes concrètes d'une intervention vis...
Article
Introduction and purpose. — According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), in the European Union, 13,000 cases of breast cancer (BC) could be annually prevented by maintaining a normal body weight. The purpose of this review is to analyze the relationships between Physical Activity (PA) and BC, the latter being a disease assoc...
Article
Full-text available
Background Physical inactivity is a key contributor to the global burden of disease and disproportionately impacts the wellbeing of people experiencing mental illness. Increases in physical activity are associated with improvements in symptoms of mental illness and reduction in cardiometabolic risk. Reliable and valid clinical tools that assess phy...
Article
Abstract Physical activity has been suggested to reduce the high prevalence of metabolic complications in individuals with psychosis. Although high intensity interval training (HIIT) is efficacious in other populations, it remains poorly studied in psychosis. Methods Randomized controlled study comparing the effects of 6 months HIIT supervised pr...
Article
Health behaviour change is a cornerstone in the management of obesity, and data on health behaviours, intentions and barriers to change would be useful to inform the development of interventions. The aim of this study was to describe these variables in individuals with obesity, and to compare obesity classes. The study obtained data from the Canadi...
Article
Full-text available
Although higher physical activity (PA) levels are associated with better mental health, previous findings about the shape of the dose–response relationship between PA and mental health are inconsistent. Furthermore, this association may differ according to sedentary levels. We investigated the cross-sectional dose-response associations between obje...
Conference Paper
Context: People with severe mental illness (SMI) have a reduced life expectancy notably because of cardiovascular disease and their metabolic consequences, including obesity. Although physical activity (PA) is recommended, people with SMI are insufficiently active and have high levels of sedentary behaviours. So, there is a need to develop interven...
Preprint
Therefore, the evidence of optimal PA doses for better mental health should be interpreted with caution because sedentary behavior interplays with mental health. In the future, the “move more and sit less” strategy that is recommended for physical health5 might be also be fostered for mental health.
Chapter
Along the growing interest toward physical activity among people with serious mental illness, researchers faced new challenges such as the initiation, increase, and maintenance of physical activity, as the necessity to develop approaches maximizing physical activity interventions. To favor physical activity interventions, psychological and behavior...
Preprint
Objective. The present meta-analysis aimed to determine the overall effect of cognitive behavior therapy combined with physical exercise (CBTEx) interventions on depression, anxiety, fatigue, and pain in adults with chronic illness; to identify the potential moderators of efficacy; and to compare the efficacy of CBTEx versus each condition alone (C...
Conference Paper
Maintaining a certain level of physical activity is important to prevent some chronic pathologies. This is even more important for people with severe mental health problems, but they have many barriers that make it very difficult for them to be physically active, including lack of motivation. In this paper, we propose an exergame that aims to help...
Preprint
YOU CAN DOWNLOAD IT: https://osf.io/preprints/sportrxiv/ze3qy/ Although higher physical activity (PA) levels are associated with better mental health, previous findings about the shape of the dose–response relationship between PA and mental health are inconsistent. Furthermore, this association may differ according to sedentary levels. We investiga...
Article
Full-text available
Objective. The present meta-analysis aimed to determine the overall effect of cognitive behavior therapy combined with physical exercise (CBTEx) interventions on depression, anxiety, fatigue, and pain in adults with chronic illness; to identify the potential moderators of efficacy; and to compare the efficacy of CBTEx versus each condition alone (C...
Article
Full-text available
Background Among adults with psychotic disorders, negative symptoms as unhealthy lifestyle habits contribute to a high prevalence of metabolic syndrome and obesity. Lifestyle interventions, mainly physical activity (PA) has emerged as an essential component. Furthermore, interval training (IT) was found to be efficacious in other populations but po...
Article
Full-text available
Over the past 30 years, there has been a growing interest in the application of the transtheoretical model (TTM) in the domain of physical activity (PA). Even though this model has been widely used to implement PA interventions, most of these interventions have not used all of the TTM’s theoretical constructs. Indeed, several studies focused exclus...
Article
Physical activity (PA) is a very important component of breast cancer management in complement of the purely carcinologic approach, since it decreases mortality from all causes in these patients. Endurance PA targeted at low to moderate intensity has proved its efficacy and usefulness in this context. Since the efficacy of low intensity PA is expla...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose The purpose of the present study was to compare prediction of physical activity (PA) by experiential or behavioral processes of change (POCs) or an interaction between both types of processes. Design A cross-sectional study. Setting This study was conducted using an online questionnaire. Participants A total of 394 participants (244 wome...
Article
Full-text available
Over the past 30 years there has been a growing interest in the application of the transtheoretical model (TTM) in the domain of physical activity (PA). Even though this model has been widely used to implement PA interventions, most of these interventions did not use all the TTM’s theoretical constructs. Indeed, several studies focused exclusively...
Data
Study selection flow chart. PA = physical activity; RCT = randomized controlled trail.

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