Biomedical Research

DOI: 10.4066/biomedicalresearch.29-17-891

Abstract

With the continuous improvement of people's living standard, the health care of the ethnic minorities in China, such as Inner Mongolia has been concerned. This paper, studies the changes of physical activity and the socio-psychological factors of Mongolian adults, through the FIT model. The study analyses the physical activity of majority of the Inner Mongolia adults and the conclusion was drawn. Physical activity is one of the important risk factor for wide spectrum of diseases and it was significantly affected by the economic level and other factors.

Keywords

Mongolian adults, Physical activity, Change stage, Social psychology

Introduction

With the development of economy and science and technology, people's living standards continue to improve, and become more and more convenient. This has drastically increased the Inactivity in adults thus leading to chronic diseases [1]. Heath et al. have pointed out that with the improvement of vehicle and road construction, people's physical activity time has drastically reduced, thus leads to the incidence of a variety of diseases [2]. According to the survey of the status quo of China's mass sports in recent years, the participation of young people aged 20-26 is not optimistic [3]. Li et al. states that Inner Mangolian ethnic groups constitutes about 96% of countries population, thus the state of health is of this group should be considered as a national concern [4]. However, due to the living habits the Inner Mongolia ethnic groups generally face obesity and related health issues. This paper attempts to put forward the research on the changes of physical activity and social psychological factors of Mongolian Adults in China. The study results will help the Inner Mongolia adults to improve their physical quality and reduce the incidence of disease.

State of the Art

The present situation of physical activities of Mongolian adults in China

China is a country with many ethnic groups, so the minority nationalities in the integration of the family also retain its own national characteristics of customs and habits. The Inner Mongolian adult’s generally follow static activities in their daily life. Chen et al. have investigated the obesity rate of Inner Mongolia adults and the study found that 13% of Inner Mongolia's men and women were obese, and the annual rate of increase was higher than the national average growth rate of 10.2% [5]. Otgontuya et al. has pointed out that the increase in the rate of obesity in Inner Mongolia and its resident’s lifestyle and customs have a great relationship [6]. Another important reason is the lack of physical activity in Inner Mongolia as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Mongolian adults and live scenes.

Methodology

The theory and current situation of adult physical activity

People's physical activity is a complex behavior that will be influenced by many factors such as their own physical, psychological and social, and external environment [7]. According to the current study, the understanding of physical activity can be used to explain and predict the content of the body, including the following four types:

• The healthy belief model.

• The theory of planned behavior is established on the basis of rationality.

• Self-determination theory model.

• Theory of health behavior process.

A study on the changes of physical activities of Mongolian adults in China and the models and experiments of social psychological factors

Combined with the above analysis, the most suitable model is the FIT model. In the FIT model, there are four elements to promote the health of the body. In the course of the study, it was found that the variables of physical activity were seven variables. In this paper, it is necessary to compare the social and psychological variables with the FIT model at the adjacent stage [8]. Therefore, this paper makes assumptions about the changes in the physical activity of Mongolian adults and their social psychological factors as follows:

Subjective obstacles: NC>C=P>E>M, P>F>M

Self-efficacy: NC=C=P<E<M, P<F<M

Outcome expectation: NC=C=P=E=M, P=F=M

Body concept: NC<C=P=E<M, P=F<M

Activity plan: NC=C=P=E<M, P<F<M

Emotional attitude: P=E<M, P>F, F<M

Internal motivation: P<E<M, P<F<M

In addition, we must take into account the activities of Mongolian adults and social support factors, it is necessary to assume another three factors, namely:

Activity environmental importance assessment: P=E=M, P=F=M

Emotional experience: E<M, F<M

Social support: NC<C<P=E=M, P=F<M

Among them, NC=prior period, C=period of consideration, P=preparation period, E=exploratory period, F=fluctuation period, M=retention period.

Result Analysis and Discussion

This study uses the FIT model to analyse the factors affecting the stage of physical activity of Mongolian Adults in our country and the influence of social psychology. As shown in Table 1, social psychological factors are related to support of the paired comparison in adjacent stages.

Table 1. The results of paired comparison and support of social psychological factors in adjacent stages.

In addition, Table 2 shows the influence of the adult sex, age, educational level, economic status and physical activity behavior in frequency distribution and percentage of adults in Inner Mongolia.

Table 2. Frequency distribution and percentage of adult sex, age, educational level, economic status and physical activity in Inner Mongolia.

The data in the Table 2 shows the gender, age, education level, economic status and stage distribution of Inner Mongolia adults. The distribution of the various stages can be seen, in the table. The adult physical activity in Inner Mongolia is considered in the most of its stage, and in the preparation period of the least.

Conclusions

As a multi-ethnic country, ethnic minority areas not only inherited the national culture, but also retained the national characteristics of the living customs. However, with the continuous development of China's economy, people's living standards continue to improve. The health of ethnic minorities has become an important concern. In this paper, the Mongolian adult physical activity changes in the stage and its social psychology influencing factors were put forward, through the FIT model. Mongolian adult’s physical activity changes and social psychology impact were analysed and the findings suggest that most of the Inner Mongolia ethnic groups were considered in the stage of physical activity, and the economic situation and the level of education were affected mostly.

Acknowledgement

The study was supported by the National Key Technology Support Program of China (2012BAK21B01), University Special Fund Program for Basic Research of China (2014QN007).

References

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