Predicting Health Volunteers’ Physical Activity regarding the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Stages of Change Structure

Authors

1 Department of Public Health, School of Public Health and Safety, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

2 Associate Professor, Department of Health Education and Health Promotion, Social Determinants of Health research center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

3 Department of Medical Informatics, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

4 Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

5 Professor, Department of Epidemiology, Social Determinants of Health research center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

10.22034/meb.2021.303846.1026

Abstract

Background: Physical activity promotes mental health, life satisfaction, and quality of life and reduces the symptoms of depression and anxiety. Accordingly, the present study aimed to investigate predictors of physical activity of health volunteers regarding the theory of planned behavior and the stages of change model.
Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 262 women health volunteers were selected using the simple random sampling method. The required data was collected using a questionnaire with acceptable validity and reliability, which encompassed three sections addressing demographic information, planned behavior theory, and stages of change structure. Moreover, International Physical Activity Questionnaires (IPAQ) were used to assess the participants’ physical activity. The data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square test, Spearman correlation, and general linear model (GLM) in SPSS software (version 16.0).
Results: In the present study, the participants’ mean age was 40.9 ±88.66 years. There was a direct and significant correlation between attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control (PBC) with physical activity (p˂0.05). However, there was no significant correlation between behavioral intention and physical activity (p˃0.05). Moreover, all constructs of the theory of planned behavior (TPB), and the stages of change (SOC) could predict physical activity (p˂0.05); however, the most powerful construct was PBC.
Conclusion: The findings indicated that effective physical activity outcomes can be achieved based on TPB and the SOC model and with a specific focus on the PBC improvement.

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