Abstract :
Active lifestyles help older adults maintain and enhance their health and well-being, as well as prevent illnesses. Physical activity (PA) benefits in particular by improving physical and mental functioning, as well as social well-being and general physical and physiological health. The study aims to determine the association between study variables and Self-Efficacy for physical activity. A descriptive predictive design was used to identify the association between study variables and SE for PA. The study included a sample of 70 older adults who were randomly selected from geriatric care home. The study instrument included the sociodemographic sheet and includes the Health Beliefs about physical activity. The descriptive statistical measures of frequency and percentage were used. Mean and standard deviation were also used. The linear regression, independent-sample t-test, and one-way analysis of variance were also used. The sociodemographic results showed that the age mean is 67.7 ± 4.45 at 60-65 years old, and 65.7% are males. The majority of participants are singles (38.6%). (45.7%) are elementary school graduates. Finally, more than two fifths are overweight (42.9%). The finding showed there are statistically significant inverse associations between perceived severity, perceived barriers, cues to action, and self-efficacy for physical activity (p-value = 0.005, 0.030, 0.049), respectively. On the other hand, there is a statistically significant positive association between perceived benefits and self-efficacy for PA (p-value = 0.027). The results indicated that using the HBM provides the best predictors of self-efficacy for PA, and the best construct of HBM to predict self-efficacy for PA was cues to action, best predicted, followed by perceived barriers to PA. The researchers recommended conducting studies aimed at reinforcing the beliefs of older adults who suffer from physical inactivity to promote their self-efficacy in physical activity and to motivate them to change their behavior. The researchers also recommended providing training programs suitable to create environments supporting health at geriatric care homes and providing the necessary resources and sports facilities to promote PA among older adults.
