Aim: Self-efficacy and outcome expectation are psychological factors influencing performance behavior. Self-efficacy is a person's confidence that one can successfully perform the behavior to produce depend outcomes. Outcome expectation is the estimate that a favorable consequence will be produced by the behavior. These psychological factors are important reasons to perform exercise for health promotion among elderly people, but little is known about the relations among them. Therefor this study examined the relation among exercise for health promotion, self-efficacy, and outcome expectation of elderly people.
Methods: This was a prospective study using self answered questionnaire. Data were collected from before and three follow-up investigations at 3 months intervals over a 9 month period. The sample was composed of 43 elderly people who applied for exercise program.
Results: A strong correlation (r = 0.375 - r = 0.412) was observed between self-efficacy and exercise performance after three months. There was a strong correlation (r = 0.349 - r = 0.665) between outcome expectation and exercise performance at 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months.
Conclusion: These findings suggest that self-efficacy and outcome expectation are significant predictors of exercise performance for health promotion in elderly people.