title: Relationship of psychological factors with physical activity stage of change in prime-and middle-aged Japanese.
abstract: The present study aimed to investigate the status of physical activity and the differences in psychological factors associated with physical activity from the perspective of transtheoretical model stages between prime- and middle-aged Japanese. The study involved 375 prime-aged volunteers (175 men, 200 women) and 557 middle-aged volunteers (247 men, 310 women) living in Kuse, a town in Okayama Prefecture, Japan. We found that the prime-aged men at the preparation stage had significantly higher self-efficacy scores than at the contemplation stage (p<0.01). Middle-aged men had significantly higher self-efficacy scores at the contemplation stage than at the precontemplation stage (p<0.001). Middle-aged women, meanwhile, had significantly higher self-efficacy scores at the maintenance stage than at the action stage (p<0.01), and at the contemplation stage than at the precontemplation stage (p<0.001). The present findings provide valuable information about the differences in psychological factors affecting physical activity between prime-aged and middle-aged community-dwelling Japanese. This information may be useful to health professionals as they develop effective community-based intervention programs for target populations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama 700-8558, Japan.
authors.forename: Keiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mori
authors.forename: Hisao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Da-Hong
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jiro
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Takaki
authors.forename: Tomoko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takigawa
authors.forename: Keiki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ogino
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology; D044466:Asian People / Q000523:psychology*; D015444:Exercise / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged