Abstract
BackgroundFew studies examined socio-ecological factors and leisure time physical activities (LTPA) and rarely focused on self-regulation and social capital, which might play a significant role in impacting people’s physical activity behavior. This study aimed to examine the direct and indirect effects of individual level (perceived benefits, perceived barriers, and self-efficacy), interpersonal level (self-regulation), social level (social capital), and environmental level factors (perceived physical environment) on LTPA among older adults.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted in 737 older adults from Sichuan, China. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis was used to examine the associations of individual, interpersonal, social, and environmental level factors with LTPA.ResultsThe mean age of all participants was 71.22 (range, 60–97), and 56.1% of them were women. The SEM results showed that individual level variables (β = 0.32, ρ < 0.001), self-regulation (β = 0.18, ρ < 0.001) and social capital (β = 0.14, ρ < 0.001) could all directly affect LTPA while there was no significant association of perceived physical environment with LTPA. Self-regulation served as a bridge linking social capital and LTPA. Individual level variables contributed the largest total effect (0.32) on LTPA. Self-regulation and social capital had the same total effect (0.18) on LTPA.ConclusionsFactors on three levels were all significantly associated with LTPA. Interventions that incorporate individual, interpersonal, social factors may be considered to promote LTPA in older adults. Self-regulation should receive more attention in future interventions.
Highlights
Few studies examined socio-ecological factors and leisure time physical activities (LTPA) and rarely focused on self-regulation and social capital, which might play a significant role in impacting people’s physical activity behavior
The Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis showed that individual level variables, interpersonal level variable, and social level variable were significantly associated with LTPA, while environmental level variable was not significantly associated with LTPA in older adults
Self-regulation mediated the pathway from social capital to LTPA
Summary
Few studies examined socio-ecological factors and leisure time physical activities (LTPA) and rarely focused on self-regulation and social capital, which might play a significant role in impacting people’s physical activity behavior. This study aimed to examine the direct and indirect effects of individual level (perceived benefits, perceived barriers, and self-efficacy), interpersonal level (self-regulation), social level (social capital), and environmental level factors (perceived physical environment) on LTPA among older adults. The socio-ecological model suggests that behaviors are influenced by an interaction of individual, interpersonal, social, and environmental level factors [4]. Few studies have examined the effects of self-regulation and social capital on physical activity in the socio-ecological framework. Given self-regulation and social capital’s significant effects on physical activity and their potential interaction with other variables, it appears to be necessary to examine the self-regulation, social capital, and other correlates of physical activity using the socioecological model
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