Factors Affecting Exercise Behaviors of the Elderly People in Thachang Municipality, Chanthaburi Province

Abstract

            The purposes of the research were to 1) study exercise behavior and factors affecting exercise of the elderly people in Thachang Municipality, Chanthaburi province, 2) investigate factors affecting exercise behavior of the elderly people in Thachang Municipality, Chanthaburi province ,and 3)  propose guidelines on development of an exercise motivation program for the elderly people.The sample was divided into two groups: 1) 333 people with aged 60 years and over in Thachang Municipality, Chanthaburi province, and 2) 8 physical education specialists with purposive sampling. The research tools were test, questionnaire, and semi-structured interview. The data analysis was multiple regression equation.

            The results of the research were as follows: 1) the sample was female (58.56%) and male (41.44%) aged 65.21 years with standard deviation was at 3.39. The exercise behavior was high at 4.00 with standard deviation at 0.72. The knowledge of exercise was the highest at 8.01 with standard deviation at 1.75. The attitude of exercise was high at 3.63 with standard deviation at 0.97; and the perception of exercise benefits was high at 3.90 with standard deviation at 0.86; 2) the  factors affecting exercise behavior of the elderly people had statistical significance at .05 including sex, age, educational level, attitude ,and perception of exercise benefits with 46 percent of cumulative variance; and 3) the guidelines on development of an exercise motivation program for the elderly consisted of the psychological exposure for exercise, types of program activities ,and suggestions on factors of sex ,and age for an exercise motivation program in the elderly people