Factors that influence exercise participation amoung older adults

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to survey adults age 60 and older to measure their levels of exercise self-efficacy, attitudes toward exercise and health, and perceived exercise control beliefs. Participants also defined other intrapersonal factors that contribute to levels of exercise participation. Specific objectives were: To measure levels of exercise self-efficacy. To measure attitude about exercise and health. To measure exercise control beliefs. To determine the more common other intrapersonal factors of exercise participation. Procedure Questionnaires containing Likert scale items related to self-efficacy, attitude toward exercise and health, exercise control beliefs, and the open-ended questions "why do you exercise" and "why do you not exercise" were distributed to the Senior Health Center in College Station, Texas (Group 1) and to the Therapy Center (Group 2), also in College Station, Texas. Both locations serve older adults. Six questionnaires were returned from Group 1 and 55 were returned from Group 2. Due to the lack of response from Group 1, the groups were combined; one questionnaire from Group 1 was omitted as the only participant who did not exercise. Therefore, a total of 60 questionnaires were analyzed; all participants reported exercising. Results The results from this study indicated that while participants had different other intrapersonal factors that influenced exercise participation, most had similar internal factors. The internal variable scores indicated that 73.3% of the participants had a highly positive attitude toward exercise and health, scoring 4.75 to 5 on a 1 to 5 scale with no one scoring lower than a 4. Sixty percent of participants reported very strong exercise control beliefs (4.83 to 5) on a 1 to 5 scale. The scores for self-efficacy ranged from 1.88 (very low self-efficacy) to 4.0 (very high self-efficacy) with 56.5 % scoring a 3 or higher and 5% scoring under a 2. Conclusion Based on the results obtained in this study, the following conclusions were offered: In general, participants had moderately high levels of exercise self-efficacy. Participants had highly positive attitudes about exercise and health. 3. Participants had a high sense of control over exercise participation. 4. The most common other intrapersonal factors of exercise among participants were to stay healthy, feel better, and look good.