Exercise motives in independent older adults

Aims: People report a host of reasons for exercising. Exercise motives is an important area of study because it can provide significant information for understanding and predicting health behaviors. The aim of the study was to examine which of the six Exercise Motivations Inventory (EMI-2) scales - Health and Fitness (HF), Social/Emotional Benefits (SEB), Weight Management (WM), Stress Management (SM), Enjoyment (E) and Appearance (A) - discriminate three physical activity levels of Inactive, Active, and Sustained Maintainers. Methods: Three hundred fifty-five older adults (Age=66.1±6.5y) completed EMI-2 and Physical Activity Stage of Change Questionnaire (PASCQ). BMI was also assessed. Age, BMI, PASCQ, and EMI-2 subscales correlation was investigated with Pearson’s r. Two way ANOVA was used to determine whether exercise motives could discriminate among three physical activity level based on PASCQ. For this aims the six stage of change categories were collapsed into three physical activity level groups: Inactives (precontemplation and contemplation), Actives (preparation, action, early maintenance), and Sustained Maintainers (maintenance for longer than one year). Results: The three activity levels groups show a low correlation with HF and E (r=.18; p<.001 for both); BMI was correlated with WM (r=.30; p=<.001) while Age was negatively correlated with SM and E (r=-.16; p<.001 / r=-.11, p<.05 respectively). Two way ANOVA shows differences among the six EMI-2 subscales (data expressed in mean±s.d.: HF=3.50±1.05; SEB=2.27±1.23; SM=3.13±1.47; WM=3.34±1.41; E=3.63±1.30; A=1.75±1.54; p<.001), and an interaction groups-subscales (p<.001); the two subscales HF and E discriminate the Inactive group vs Active and Sustained Maintainers (p=<.05 ÷ <.001). Results suggest that Enjoyment (E) and Health and Fitness (HF) motives are important for the maintenance of actual activity in independent older adults. Implications for exercise promotion must be studied.