Factors Influencing Regular Exercise of the Elderly

Park, Yeon Hwan; Kim, Joo Hyun; Kim, Hee Ja

Abstract

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the factors influencing regular exercise of the elderly in discriminating regular exercise and non - regular exercise groups. METHOD: The subjects of this study were 167 elderly over the age of 60, living in a rural city in Korea. The data was collected by interview and self report questionnaire in 1999. The Cronbach 's alpha of scales used this study were .66 ~.97. RESULT: 1. There were significant differences in doing regular exercise between the perceived importance of the health(p=021), the perceived health status(p=.050), the perceived need of the exercise(p=000), the perceived importance of the exercise(p= .000), the intent of participation in the exercise program(p=.000), IADL score(p= .022), the perceived benefits of exercise (p=.000), the emotion of exercise(p=.000), HPLP(p=.000), the self efficacy(p=.001), the perceived benefits of health promoting behaviors(p= .011), the perceived barriers of the health promoting behaviors(p=.002), and the Internal locus of control(p=.021) of the elderly. 2. Variables which showed significance for discriminating regular exercise of the elderly in this study were the perceived need of the exercise(p=.000) and the perceived benefits of the exercise(p=.000). By using the combination of these variables, the possibility of proper prediction for predicting regular exercise group was 84.8 %, non - regular exercise group was 93.9%, and total Hit ratio was 89.4%.
CONCLUSION
To improve exercise behavior in older adults, health care providers should focus of developing interventions to strengthen the perceived benefits, the perceived needs of the exercise.