Perceived behavioral control as a potential precursor of walking three times a week: Patient's perspectives

Background: Behavior change theories can identify people’s main motivations to engage in recommended health practices and thus provide better tools to design interventions, particularly human centered design interventions. Objectives: This study had two objectives: (a) to identify salient beliefs about walking three times a week for 30 minutes nonstop among patients with hypertension in a low-resource setting and, (b) to measure the relationships among intentions, attitudes, perceived social pressure and perceived behavioral control about this behavior. Methods: Face-to-face interviews with 34 people living with hypertension were conducted in September-October 2011 in Lima, Peru, and data analysis was performed in 2015. The Reasoned Action Approach was used to study the people’s decisions to walk. We elicited people’s salient beliefs and measured the theoretical constructs associated with this behavior. Results: Results pointed at salient key behavioral, normative and control beliefs. In particular, perceived behavioral control appeared as an important determinant of walking and a small set of control beliefs were identified as potential targets of health communication campaigns, including (not) having someone to walk with, having work or responsibilities, or having no time. Conclusions: This theory-based study with a focus on end-users provides elements to inform the design of an intervention that would motivate people living with hypertension to walk on a regular basis in low-resource settings.