Predictors of regular physical activity among adults with anxiety in Taiwan

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2005

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Ma, Wei-fen

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The purpose of this study was to test a conceptual model of physical activity in Taiwanese men and women with anxiety. The physical activity in persons with anxiety (PAPA) model was modified from Pender’s revised health promotion model (Pender, Murdaugh & Parsons, 2002) and Spielberger’s cross-sectional model of anxiety (Spielberger, 1966). Personal factors (gender, education, income adequacy, and trait anxiety) were hypothesized as having direct and indirect influences on physical activity. Cognition-emotion variables (state anxiety, perceived life stress events, perceived benefits of activity, perceived barriers to activity, perceived self-efficacy for activity, perceived family members’ support for activity and perceived friends’ support for activity) were hypothesized to directly influence on physical activity. A non-probability sample of 252 participants was selected from five study sites. Data from 239 participants were analyzed using the EQS 5.7b program. The 89 men ix and 150 women ranged from 20 to 60 years of age and were receiving outpatients care for anxiety. The initial hypothesized model was modified and the final version of the PAPA model provided a good fit to the data, with: a Comparative Fit Index of 1.00, a Root-Mean-Square Error of Approximation of .01, and a Chi-Square value of 24.79, with 24 degrees of freedom (p= .417). The variables in the revised PAPA model explained 23.3% of the variance in physical activity. Three variables directly influenced physical activity: perceived life stress events, perceived benefits of activity and perceived self-efficacy for activity. The variables that indirectly influenced physical activity were gender, income adequacy, trait anxiety, state anxiety, perceived benefits of activity, perceived barriers to activity, and perceived friends’ support for activity. Education and perceived family members’ support for activity did not have either a significant direct or indirect influence on physical activity.

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