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Knowing is Half the Battle: the Association Between Leisure-Time Physical Activity and Quality of Life Among Four Groups with Different Self-Perceived Health Status in Taiwan

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Abstract

Physical activity (PA) is a contributing factor toward an important global issue: quality of life (QoL). The aim of this study was to investigate the association between PA and QoL regarding different self-perceived healthy/unhealthy male and female adults to determine whether self-perception of health status plays an important role for appreciating PA. Data were obtained from the Taiwan Social Change Survey comprising 1643 participants (828 men, 815 women). The mean age was 43.98 years (SD = 14.44). Four hierarchical linear regressions were constructed to explore the unique contribution of PA to QoL in each group. As expected, PA was significantly positively related to QoL; however, the explained variations in terms of R2 are quite different: 8.8 % self-perceived unhealthy men and 1.2 % healthy men, 4.1 % unhealthy women and 0.6 % healthy women. Among the four groups, self-perceived healthy females had a lower level of PA and may not have appreciated the effects of PA on QoL. Our results suggest that people who perceive themselves as unhealthy engage in more PA than self-perceived healthy people. Therefore, encouraging self-perceived healthy people to stay alert to maintain their physical health is crucial to QoL.

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Acknowledgments

The authors appreciate the assistance in providing data by the following institutes and individuals. Data analyzed in this article were collected by the research project “The Taiwan Social Change Survey” Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica sponsored by the National Science Council, Republic of China (NSC83-0301-H001-050-B1). This research project was carried out by Sun Yat-Sen Institute for Social Sciences and Philosophy of Academia Sinica, and directed by Dr. Chin-Chun Yi. The Office of Survey Research of Academia Sinica is responsible for the data distribution. The views expressed herein are the authors’ own.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, National Cheng Kung University College of Medicine, Tainan, Taiwan

    Huang-tz Ou

  2. Department of Occupational Therapy, Medical College, Fu Jen Catholic University, New Taipei City, Taiwan

    Chia-Ting Su

  3. Institute of Education, College of Social Sciences, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan

    Wei-Ming Luh

  4. Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong

    Chung-Ying Lin

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  1. Huang-tz Ou
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Correspondence to Chung-Ying Lin.

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Ou, Ht., Su, CT., Luh, WM. et al. Knowing is Half the Battle: the Association Between Leisure-Time Physical Activity and Quality of Life Among Four Groups with Different Self-Perceived Health Status in Taiwan. Applied Research Quality Life 12, 799–812 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-016-9488-1

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