[Psychological Factors of Adopting and Maintaining Physical Activity for Individuals with Hypertension in a Community]

Objective: To examine the impact of psychosocial factors on physical activity, so as to provide guidance for the development of an effective physical activity intervention program for individuals with hypertension.

Methods: This study used a baseline data from an intervention study on regular physical activity among hypertensive individuals. A multi-stage, stratified random sampling was utilized and finally 12 communities from 6 urban districts were chosen. Questionnaires were administrated through face-to-face interviews. A total of 586 participants were recruited and finally 559 completed the interviews with the response rate as 95.4%. Descriptive statistics and Cronbach's α coefficients were used to test the reliability. General Linear Model analysis was used to analyze the relationship between stages of physical activity and psychological factors.

Results: Psychosocial measures on physical activity demonstrated good reliability with Cronbach α coefficient from 0.7 to 0.9. The scores for each psychological measures increased by increasing the scores of stages of physical activity. General Linear Model analysis revealed self-efficacy (β = 0.379) while enjoyment of physical activity (β = 0.234) was significantly correlated with physical activity (P < 0.05). The behavioral processes and family support marginally increased the physically activity (β = 0.069 for behavioral processes and β = 0.163 for family support, P < 0.10).

Conclusion: Our findings were informative for the development of community-based intervention programs on physical activity among hypertensive individuals. It indicated that physical activity intervention programs should be psychosocial theory-based, especially increasing their self-confidence and enjoyment, as well as with family support, in order to adopt and maintain the physical activities.