Beliefs about physical activity and sedentary behaviors of adults with visual impairments

When exploring reasons why individuals with visual impairments (VI) may or may not engage in physical activity (PA) or sedentary behaviors (SB), theoretically grounded research on the determinants of these behaviors is scarce.

Situated in the theory of planned behavior (TpB), the purposes of this study were to: (a) develop a theoretically-sound scale, Beliefs about Physical and Sedentary Behaviors-Visual Impairment (BAPS-VI), to determine if the constructs of TpB are useful in predicting PA and SBs of adults with VI; (b) analyze their beliefs about PA and SBs; and (c) determine which TpB constructs are the best predictors of PA behaviors.

Data were collected from adults with VI (n = 209, 65.5% women) using on-line survey methodology. Following reliability estimation, the PA and SB items were reduced using separate Principal Components analyses to examine the underlying dimension of the BAPS-VI in relation to TpB. A hierarchical regression model was used to determine what factors predicted self-reports of minutes of PA.

Results supported the theoretical framework of the measure and explained 75% of the variance for intention to engage in PA and SB items, respectively. Six new variables, intention, and demographic data were then regressed on physical activity scores with only intention to engage in PA (β = 0.30, p < 0.01) remaining as a significant predictor of physical activity.

The development of the theoretically driven measure and results of this study can inform future research focusing on exploring PA and SBs of adults with VI.