Abstract 11771: Health Self-efficacy is Associated With Increased Physical Activity in Patients With Coronary Heart Disease

Introduction: Physical inactivity is strongly associated with morbidity and mortality, especially in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). Low levels of health self-efficacy, or a patient’s belief in his ability to engage in behaviors to improve his health, may serve as a barrier to regular physical activity in CHD patients. We evaluated the association of health self-efficacy with physical activity in the Mid-South Coronary Heart Disease Cohort Study (MCHDCS). Methods: The MCHDCS is a prospective cohort of outpatients with CHD. Participants complete a set of validated demographic, psychological, social, behavioral, and functional measures. Health self-efficacy is assayed using two items from the Perceived Health Competence Scale (PHCS-2) that comprise a ten point scale with higher scores indicating better self-efficacy. Physical activity is evaluated with the International Physical Activity Questionnaire, which measures activity in metabolic equivalent (MET)-minutes/week. Less than 600 MET-minutes/week is considered to be a low physical activity level. We used negative binomial and ordinal logistic regression to evaluate the association of self-efficacy with physical activity. Results: A total of 1612 MCHDCS participants (31% female, 9% minority, mean age 67.5 + 10.6 years) were included in the analysis. The majority of participants had low physical activity levels, with a median of 540 (interquartile range 100 to 1600) MET-minutes/week. Each one point increase on the PHCS-2 scale was associated with an 8.7% increase (95% confidence interval 2.9%-14.9%, p=0.003) in MET-minutes/week after adjustment for socioeconomic status as well as depression, health literacy, social support and other factors (Table). Conclusions: Health self-efficacy is associated with physical activity in patients with CHD. Further study is needed to determine whether interventions to increase self-efficacy will raise levels of physical activity in this population.