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Factors Associated with Exercise Motivation among African-American Men

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Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objective

The primary aims of this study were to: (1) characterize exercise stages of change among a sample of African-American men, (2) determine if exercise motivation was associated with self-reported exercise behavior, and (3) examine if groups of personal (i.e., age, BMI, income, educational attainment, and perceived health), psycho-social (i.e., exercise self-efficacy, personality type, social influence), and environmental factors (i.e., neighborhood safety) predicted stages of change for physical exercise among African-American men.

Methods

One hundred seventy African-American male participants were recruited for this study (age: 47.63(10.23) years). Participants completed a self-report questionnaire assessing study variables. Multinomial logistic regression models were used to examine the association of exercise stages of change with an array of personal, psychosocial, and environmental factors.

Results

BMI, exercise self-efficacy, and nighttime neighborhood safety were entered as independent variables in the full model. BMI and exercise self-efficacy continued to be significant predictors of exercise stages of change in the full model. Obese men had a 9.24 greater odds of being in the action stage of change than in the maintenance stage. Also, men reporting greater exercise self-efficacy had lower odds of being in the lower stages of change categories (pre-preparation, preparation, and action) than in the maintenance stage.

Conclusion

Our results confirmed that using an ecological framework explained more of the variance in exercise stages of change than any of the individual components alone. Information gleaned from this study could inform interventionists of the best ways to create tailored exercise programs for African-American men.

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Source of Funding

This study has no funding source to disclose.

Conflict of Interest Statement

Alana Mohammed, Ph.D., Jules P. Harrell, Ph.D., Kepher H. Makambi, Ph.D., Alfonso L. Campbell, Jr., Ph.D., Lloyd Ren Sloan, Ph.D., Pamela L. Carter-Nolan, Ph.D., and Teletia R. Taylor, Ph.D. declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Informed Consent Statement

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (5). Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Howard University, Washington, DC, USA

    Alana Mohammed, Jules P. Harrell, Alfonso L. Campbell Jr., Lloyd Ren Sloan & Teletia R. Taylor

  2. Department of Biostatistics, Bioinformatics, and Biomathematics, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA

    Kepher H. Makambi

  3. College of Medicine, Howard University, Washington, DC, USA

    Pamela L. Carter-Nolan & Teletia R. Taylor

Authors
  1. Alana Mohammed
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  2. Jules P. Harrell
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Correspondence to Teletia R. Taylor.

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Mohammed, A., Harrell, J.P., Makambi, K.H. et al. Factors Associated with Exercise Motivation among African-American Men. J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities 3, 457–465 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-015-0158-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-015-0158-z

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