Intention to exercise more

Abstract

There is plenty of evidence that people in England do not take enough exercise, but little knowledge of how to change this. We report here an analysis of people who were not taking adequate exercise but declared an intention to take more exercise: there is evidence that intent predicts actual behaviour change. In a random household survey in Colchester, Essex, which achieved an 86 per cent response rate, 179 respondents had taken exercise on less than three occasions in the week before the survey; of these, 43 declared an intent to take more exercise in the next three months. Age and current activity level, but not sex, social class, beliefs about benefits of and barriers to exercise, or peer support, were associated with declared intent to exercise. People who take some, but not enough, exercise are an important target group.