Abstract
This study was conducted to identify the factors that influence self-efficacy in improving health behaviors of participants in the Lifestyle-Related Disease Prevention Session held in an urban city on the main island of Japan. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were adopted; the focus group interview method was used for the qualitative study, the results of which were used to create a questionnaire to be used in the quantitative study.
The qualitative study was conducted through interviews with members of a participant group (five female participants in the 1998 session) and a specialist group (eight professions who ran the session) . The quantitative study was conducted with 287 female participants in the 1997 and 1998 sessions using the questionnaire that was created based on the analysis of the qualitative data. The questionnaire included questions about the frequency of the subjects' experience with 23 information sources that were assumed to raise self-efficacy, as well as the subjects' degree of self-efficacy in improving their diet and increasing their physical activity (10-point scale) . A total of 188 valid responses (65.5% valid response rate) were obtained and used for analysis.
The results showed a score of 6.73±1.60 on self-efficacy in diet improvement (mean ±S.D.) and a score of 6.77±1.93 in increased physical activity. Of the 23 information sources, three items regarding enactive mastery experience and self-instruction were associated with self-efficacy in both improved diet and increased physical activity (5% significance level) . Six items regarding ineffective vicarious experience or statement of objectives for other participants, as well as a positive perception of physiological and affective states reactions, showed significant difference for self-efficacy in increased physical activity.
