Motivating Reasons for Performing Physical Exercise in Relation to Socio-demographic Factors

Abstract

Despite all the well-documented physical, psychological and social benefits of regular physical exercise, it has been reported that two-thirds of the industrialised world does not perform exercise regularly. One important factor that may contribute to exercising regularly is the motivation to exercise. Different socio-demographic factors may motivate people differently to exercise regularly. Identifying these factors may help in the implementation of interventions aimed at promoting physical exercise. This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between socio-demographic characteristics and the motivating reasons for performing physical exercise. Five recreational areas/parks in Shah Alam were chosen at random. Cross-sectional study was conducted, whereby 501 adults aged 18 and above who were performing exercise were interviewed using a questionnaire. In addition to socio-demographic information, this questionnaire includes 21 items referring to the motivation for getting involved in regular physical exercise. Each item was measured on a five-point scale, from (1) strongly disagree to (5) strongly agree. The mean score of the 21 reasons was then used as the dependent variable versus the socio-demographic characteristics. We found that the motivating reasons’ score significantly correlated with age (r = −0.122, p = 0.007), BMI (r = −0.091, p = 0.042) and household income (r = −0.095, p = 0.036). Significantly higher mean scores were detected: non-Malay (p = 0.001), unmarried (p = 0.032), unemployed (p = 0.01) and free of chronic disease (p = 0.010). However, difference in gender, educational level and smoking showed no significant difference. Therefore, we concluded that non-Malay, unemployed, young, unmarried, lower income, lower BMI and no chronic illness have higher motivating reasons in doing physical exercise.