Culture and Health Belief Model: Exploring the Determinants of Physical Activity Among Saudi Adults and the Moderating Effects of Age and Gender

Physical inactivity is a significant risk factor for many non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and evidence shows that physical inactivity is one of the highest risk factors for death globally. Research has shown that theory-driven persuasive interventions are more effective at promoting behaviour change than generic ones. However, research on the determinants of physical activity and the moderating effect of age and gender among non-Western culture is limited. To close this gap, we conduct a large-scale study of the determinants of physical activity among 217 participants from Saudi Arabia using the extended Health Belief Model (HBM), a commonly applied behavioural model in health interventions design. We also assessed for the moderating effect of age and gender. Our findings show that Social influence, Cue to action and Perceived severity are the strongest determinants of physical activity in Saudi adults. We map these determinants to their corresponding persuasive strategies that can be used in operationalizing them in persuasive applications for promoting physical activity. Finally, we discuss the implication of our findings and offer design guidelines for persuasive interventions that appeal to both a broad audience and tailored to a particular group depending on their gender and age group.