Effective Components of the Commitment to Do and Maintain Physical Activity Based on Pender Health Promotion Model in Middle-Aged Women of the Southern Regions of Iran During 2018

 The World Health Organization (WHO) has selected reducing the prevalence of sedentary behavior as its top priority by 2025. One of the holistic models of lifestyle modification is Pender's Health Promotion Model. The purpose of this study is to determine the effective components to perform and maintain physical activity in middle-aged women.

 This was a cross-sectional study of the variance-covariance matrix. The data were collected from health centers in the west of Ahvaz on different days in 2018 based on a structural equation modeling approach. This data included demographic characteristics, commitment to do and maintain physical activity, social support, perceived barriers, self-efficacy, and perceived enjoyment. The average variance extracted index (AVE) and Fornell-Larker criterion were used to assess convergent and divergent validity, and Cronbach's alpha coefficients and composite reliability were used to assess internal consistency. 

 The mean and standard deviation of the age was 38/22 ± 6/72 years. Controllable barriers had the highest (0.265) and uncontrollable barriers the least (0.152) effect on the commitment to do and maintain physical activity. Also, composite reliability coefficients of controllable (0.75) and uncontrollable (0.79) barriers were found to be favorable.

 The proposed model had a sufficient fit to determine the main components' commitment to do and maintain physical activity in middle-aged women. It is recommended to pay particular attention to the role of controllable and uncontrollable barriers along with the perceived pleasure in commitment to do and maintain physical activity in middle-aged women.