Abstract

PURPOSE
This study was to predict the stage of exercise behavior change in undergraduate students and to identify the factors affecting exercise behavior change by using the trans theoretical Model.
METHOD
The subjects were 193 undergraduate students at K and D university in D city. Data were collected by questionnaire surveys using convenience sampling and analyzed by SPSS 12.0 program.
RESULTS
77.7% of 193 nursing students do not exercise or they exercise irregularly. Exercise self-efficacy score and exercise benefits score were decreased with advancing exercise stage, on the other hand exercise barriers score and the process of exercise behavior change score were increased. In addition to this, the results revealed that stage of exercise behavior was significantly correlated with the process of exercise behavior change, exercise benefits, exercise barriers and exercise self-efficacy.
CONCLUSION
These results suggested that the process of exercise behavior change, exercise decisional balance and exercise self-efficacy can be potential affecting factors for the stages of behavior change in university students. Therefore, these findings give useful information for educating nurse to construct nursing service programs focused on the stage of behavior change.

• Keywords: Transtheoretical model; Exercise behavior; Process of change