The study of college students’ physical exercise behavior phase and process of change based on the Transtheoretical model / 中华疾病控制杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To analyze the stage characteristics in the exercise behavior improvement of college students and explore the role of Process in the exercise behavior change based on the transtheoretical model, providing basis for the stage-matched intervention for the exercise behavior of college students. Methods There were 932 students who completed the questionnaires, from 5 universities in Shanxi Province were selected by using a stratified random cluster sampling method. Descriptive analysis was used to describe the exercise behavior of college students. Variance analysis and multivariate Logistic regression model were used to analyze the difference of the process of with stage of change among college students’ physical exercise. Multivariate variance analysis was used to analyze how personal characteristics affect process of change. Results Among all participants, 89.4% students knew the importance of physical exercise, and 29.4% students were satisfied with their physical exercise condition. The distribution of students’ physical exercise stage showed an inverted U-shape with left-side peak, and there was a significant difference between gender( 2=54.657, P<0.001). There were significant stage characteristics in the process of students' exercise behavior, gender had a significant main effects on mutual aid relation(F=7.400, P=0.07)and conscious control (F=7.778, P=0.005), gender and grade had interaction effects on social release (F=3.614, P=0.013). Conclusions The college students' exercise behavior showed the characteristics of “knowing but not to do”, which conformed to the Transtheoretical model. It is essential to develop targeted phased exercise intervention strategies according to the relationship between change of phase and change of procedure.