Developing Culturally Relevant Design Guidelines for Encouraging Physical Activity: a Social Cognitive Theory Perspective

The prevalence of physical inactivity and non-communicable diseases is on the rise worldwide. This calls for a systematic approach in addressing the problem, which is almost becoming a global epidemic. Research has shown that theory-driven interventions are more likely to be effective than uninformed interventions. However, research on the determinants of physical activity and the moderating effect of culture is scarce. To bridge this gap, we conducted a large-scale comparative study of the determinants of physical activity among 633 participants from individualist and collectivist cultures. Using the Social Cognitive Theory, a widely applied behavioral theory in health interventions, we modeled the determinants of physical activity for each culture and mapped them to implementable strategies in the application domain. Our structural equation model shows that, in the individualist culture, Self-Efficacy (βT = 0.55, p < 0.001) and Self-Regulation (βT = 0.33, p < 0.001) are the strongest determinants of Physical Activity. However, in the collectivist culture, Social Support (βT = 0.42, p < 0.001) and Outcome Expectation (βT = 0.11, p < 0.01) are the strongest determinants of Physical Activity. We discussed these findings, mapped the respective behavioral determinants to the corresponding persuasive strategies in the health domain and provided a set of general design guidelines for tailoring the strategies to the respective cultures.