Context factors in health behviour change: Cognition-environment interactions in predicting physical activity

Background: Social-cognitive theories assume a role of context factors for health behaviour. However, this relation is often weakly specified and rarely examined. The two studies presented here test whether properties of the meso-context (districts) affect if and how healthrelated cognitions are translated into physical activity.

Methods: Study 1 (survey, N = 6200), Study 2 (older adults, N = 300). Both assessed physical activity and health-related cognitions. Context factors (GDP at district level) were examined in multilevel models for cross-level interactions.

Findings: GDP affected intercepts and slopes of attitudes in predicting physical activity (B = 0.08, Study 1). GDP also affected intercepts and slopes of intention (B = 0.06) and planning (Bs = 0.11 and 0.07) in predicting activity in Study 2.

Discussion: These findings suggest that apart from individual-level factors such as attitudes, intentions or planning, the opportunity structure of the environment may play an important role in determining whether health-related cognitions can be translated into actual health behaviour.