Analysis of older people's walking behavioral intention with the extended theory of planned behavior

Introduction: Walking is a vital part of an older person's daily routine. It is critical to get insight into the determinants of older people's behavioral intention (BI) to walk in the neighborhood to encourage walking among them. However, research on older people's walking habits is lacking, particularly in developing countries like China. Methods: 501 complete responses were collected from a face-to-face survey conducted in Nanjing City. Four models were analyzed and compared in this paper. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) was examined in Model 1. The descriptive norm (DN) was added to the TPB in Model 2. Walking environment components were added to the TPB in Model 3. The TPB was supplemented with DN and walking environment constructs in Model 4. Results: Model 1 and Model 2 explain 71.3% and 74.9% of the variance in BI, respectively, meaning that the explanatory power increases by 3.6% when DN is taken into account. Model 3 explains 80.2% of the variance in BI, implying that when the walking environment constructs are included, the explanatory power increases by 8.9%. Model 4 has the greatest explanatory power (82.0%) on BI. Attitude (ATT), perceived behavioral control (PBC), and DN have significant associations with older people's BI, whereas subjective norm (SN) does not. In terms of constructs of the walking environment, perceived comfort has a significant association with behavioral intention, but perceived safety does not. Conclusions: How others act around an individual, other than how they approve of that individual's actions, has a significant impact on older people's walking intentions. PBC is highly correlated with older people's BI. The findings also emphasize the need of improving the walking environment for older individuals.