Sources of Efficacy for Walking and Climbing Stairs Among Older Adults

Among elderly people, "getting around" in the community is seen as important to maintaining autonomy and independence. Social Cognitive Theory posits that self-efficacy is a key element of physical activity behavior, yet little is known about the origins of self-confidence for community mobility. The purpose of this study was to identify the main contextual elements (sociodemographic variables) and cognitive elements (belief variables) that contribute to self-efficacy to walk blocks and climb flights of stairs among older adults (dependent variables). In total, 447 adults over age 50 were surveyed on: (i) social and contextual characteristics such as age, gender, health, education, birthplace and lifelong physical activity; (ii) self-referent beliefs about exercise confidence, social support, value motives, perceived exertion, perceived enjoyment and beliefs about benefits and risks in six types of physical activities. Linear regression showed that both social context and self-referent belief variables were significant predictors of efficacy for walking blocks and/or climbing stairs. Social context variables that significantly undermined confidence for community mobility were being: older, female, born in North America, and feeling less healthy. Elders' beliefs about vigorous types of physical activities (i.e., uncertainty about benefits, anticipating high exertion, and non-enjoyment) also affected their confidence in community mobility.