1. Physical activity motives and their ability
to predict physical activity level of young adults
Koustravas M.1, Dimitriadis Z.1,2, Stasinopoulos D.1, Kapreli E.3, Sacha M.4 ,Strimpakos N.3
1European University of Cyprus, 2TEI Athens, 3TEI Sterea Ellada, 4Physiopolis
Introduction
Physical activity may have important consequences in health and social life. Intervention strategies and policies for increasing physical activity prerequisite a clear understanding about the motives leading to increased physical activity. Although a number of studies have been conducted towards this direction, the physical activity motives in Greek population remain unexplored.
Methods
Participants completed a general health and
demographics questionnaire. Furthermore, they
completed the Assessment Scale for
Completion of Usual Physical Activities
(ASCUPA)1, the Short Scale of Physical
Activity Motives (SSPAM)1, a Visual Analogue
Scale for their motivation to complete a physical
activity (VAS motivation)1 and the Baecke
Questionnaire for Habitual Physical Activities2.
Correlations between physical activity motives
and level were examined by using Spearman
Correlation Coefficients. Regression analysis
was performed by using as predictors all the
variables which were significantly correlated with
physical activity level. P was set at 0.05.
Results
Discussion & Conclusions
Improvement of physical activity was the most usual motive for physical activity whereas appearance, enjoyment, personal improvement, psychological condition and medical reasons are additional frequent motives. Ego, enjoyment, economical reasons and especially personal improvement are the motives that mainly determine the physical activity level of young people of Thessaloniki. Personal improvement, motivation for completion a physical activity and economical reasons are the parameters that can significantly predict their physical activity level.
Recommendations
Therapists and governments should use the findings of the current study to direct policies for improving the physical activity of the citizens. However, further research in people of other geographic regions could provide a more comprehensive knowledge about the motives that lead people to be physical active.
Purpose
The main aim of this study was to examine the physical activity motives of adults in Thessaloniki and their association with physical activity level. A secondary aim was the construction of a regression model in order to understand the unique contribution of each motive as well as to examine their ability to predict the physical activity level.
Figure 1: Descriptives about when young people of Thessaloniki stop a physical activity.
Results
The most important motive for physical activity was the physical condition. The mean number of motives for physical activity was approximately 5. The participants reported medium to high motivation for physical activity (VAS motivation: ±2.2 cm). The 41.7% of the participants reported that they stop an activity when they feel really tired. Table 1, Table 2 and Figure 1 present the most important of these findings.
Table 2: Correlations between physical activity motives and physical activity level
Variable
Physical activity
Ego / Competition
rs = 0.19*
Appearance
rs = -0.06
Enjoyment
rs = 0.25*
Personal improvement§
rs = 0.41***
Participation / Affiliation
rs = 0.09
Physical Condition
rs = 0.17
Psychological condition
rs = 0.18
Economical reasons§
rs = 0.33**
Medical reasons
rs = -0.05
VAS motivation§
r s= 0.43***
Motivation scale
rs = 0.36***
Number of motives
rs = 0.27**
Main motive
η2 = 0.15*
References
Dimitriadis Z., Koustravas M. (2016). Development and reliability of a battery of clinical scales for the assessment of motives for physical activity. In proceedings of 30th Conference of Hellenic Scientific Society of Physical Therapy: Spine Symposium Marousi: Greece.
Strimpakos N., Anastasiadi E., Panayiotou G., Athanasopoulos S., Karteroliotis K., Kapreli E. (2015). Greek version of modified Baecke physical activity questionnaire (mBQ): cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric properties. Physiotherapy, 101, pp.e1446-e1447.
Participants
In this cross-sectional study, 108 healthy adults from Thessaloniki (Greece) between year old participated (male/female 53/55, age ±5.7 years, height 171.6±9.1 cm, weight ±12 kg, BMI 23.9±2.9 kg/m2).
Participants were mainly of Greek nationality (96%), single (80%), without children (83%), of moderate economical status (52%-73%), with siblings (92%) and highly educated (65%).
Participants were included if they were full or partial residents of Thessaloniki and between years old.
The participants were conveniently recruited through internet services and oral advertisement.
The study was accepted as an MSc thesis from the European University of Cyprus.
Table 1: Descriptives for physical activity motives in young residents of Thessaloniki.
Motive
Median
Ego / Competition
Disagree
Appearance
Agree
Enjoyment
Personal improvement
Participation / Affiliation
Neither agree nor disagree
Physical condition
Highly agree
Psychological condition
Economical reasons
Medical reasons
Contact details
Dr Zacharias Dimitriadis
Scientific Collaborator of European University of Cyprus and TEI Athens
*p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001
§Statistically significant predictors of physical activity in the multiple regression model where the eight variables that were correlated with physical activity level were used as predictors (R=0.60, R2=0.36, adjusted R2=0.34, p<0.001).