Abstract W MP4: Psychometric Evaluation of an Instrument to Assess Perceived Benefits and Barriers to Exercise for Stroke Prevention among African Americans

Abstract

Exercise can reduce the risk of stroke and identifying perceived benefits and barriers to exercise relevant to African Americans (AA) may contribute to ways to facilitate exercise participation. However, standardized instruments to assess exercise beliefs for stroke prevention have not been well tested in AA. Purpose: To examine the psychometric properties of the Exercise Benefits and Barriers for Stroke Prevention Scale (EBBSP), a combination of the perceived benefits and barriers subscales from the Cerebrovascular Attitudes and Beliefs Scale - Revised and the Health Beliefs Related to Cardiovascular Disease Scale, adapted for stroke. Methods: A non-random sample of 66 at risk, young to middle-aged AA completed the EBBSP, a 16-item self-report, 5-point Likert scale. Cronbach's alpha procedure tested reliabilities and principal components analysis with varimax rotation was employed to assess construct validity. Self-report measures of current exercise performance and future intentions to exercise were administered and Spearman Rho analyses were used to examine predictive validity. Results: Cronbach’s reliability coefficients for the benefits and barriers subscales were 0.82 and 0.76. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure (0.69) and Bartlett’s test (p= .000) indicated the data were adequate to be factored. A four factor solution explained 64% of the common variance. Two factors pertained to benefits (i.e. health and support/resources) and two factors applied to barriers (i.e. sensory and time priority). Perceived health benefits explained the majority of the variance (33%), consistent with the most commonly reported motivator to exercise, “good/better health” (34%). Greater benefits to exercise was associated with greater future intentions to exercise (r s = 0.60, p< 0.01) but not with current exercise performance (p > 0.05), while fewer barriers to exercise was associated with higher exercise performance (r s = -0.25, p< .05) and greater future intentions to exercise (r s = -.29, p< .05). Conclusion: The p sychometric evaluation of the EBBSP revealed preliminary evidence of acceptable reliability and validity. The EBBSP may be useful in research with a focus on understanding, prediction, and promotion of exercise for stroke prevention among AA.