The role of self-efficacy in older people's decisions to initiate and maintain regular walking as exercise -- Findings from a qualitative study.
OBJECTIVE
To study the role of self-efficacy within the process of initiating and maintaining regular walking as exercise for older people.


METHODS
A post-trial interview study was carried out among a sub-sample of participants from a trial to evaluate the effect of a self-efficacy walking intervention for older Taiwanese people with moderate hypertension. To fit the study objective purposive sampling was used to sample those participants who were potentially information rich. A thematic analysis was used to identify emergent themes using a 'Framework' model. The study was conducted in Taiwan in 2004.


RESULTS
Twenty-two participants were interviewed. A number of themes and sub-themes were generated from the analysis to explain older people's views about initiating and maintaining regular walking as exercise. These included enjoyment and the sense of achievement in being a regular walker; learning from or sharing experiences with other walkers; and their sense of well being during a period of regular walking.


CONCLUSIONS
The factors older interviewees discussed were consistent with self-efficacy theory. The post-trial interviews suggest that the use of self-efficacy was an essential component in explaining the success of the community-based walking program in the original trial.
Lee
Ling-Ling
LL
Department of Nursing, Tzu Chi College of Technology, No. 880, Jen-Kuo Road, Section 2, Hualien, 970, Taiwan. lllee@tccn.edu.tw
Avis
Mark
M
Arthur
Antony
A
D000368:Aged; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002755:Choice Behavior; D015444:Exercise / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000517:prevention & control; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012423:Rural Health; D020377:Self Efficacy; D013624:Taiwan; D016138:Walking / Q000523:psychology*