Associations between coping strategies in high-risk situations that lead to exercise relapse and the degree of self-efficacy among middle-aged and older adults

Abstract

  The Relapse Prevention Model (RPM) has been used in the study of exercise maintenance. The purpose of this study was to indicate the high-risk situations that lead to exercise relapse and to clarify the cognitive-behavioral coping strategies in order to address the situation among middle-aged and older adults. We examined the relationship between such coping strategies and self-efficacy for exercise. The study subjects were 211 exercisers aged 60 years and above, and they answered the following questions by questionnaire: 1) typical high-risk situations that interfered with exercise and cognitive-behavioral coping strategies related to such situations, 2) subsequent patterns of exercise outcome, and 3) self-efficacy for exercise. Results showed that typical high-risk situations were “bad weather”, “bad physical conditions or injury”, and “fatigue”. The coping strategies were mostly consistent with preceding research. Subjects who used positive coping to address high-risk situations tended to return to exercise, and had higher self-efficacy compared to users of negative coping. These results confirmed the importance of preventing exercise slips among middle-aged and older adults, and future interventions should consider the components of RPM used in this study.