| The purposes of the study were to (1) determine the effects of a 12-week exercise program on motivation and the performance of a healthy lifestyle among individuals recovering from a recent heart attack or cardiac related procedures, and (2) assess the effects of motivation on the performance of a healthy lifestyle at the completion of a 12-week exercise program.;After controlling for education, income, and pretest scores, no significant difference was found between the exercise and the comparison groups in overall healthy lifestyle scores. While the two groups showed positive changes in their performance of a healthy lifestyle during the 12-week period, the group differences were not significant. However, the exercise group scored significantly higher in most motivational variables than the comparison group even after adjusting for the same control variables. At the completion of a 12-week exercise program, perceived present health and six motivational variables together explained 42% of variance in a healthy lifestyle. Perceived present health was the most significant variable to explain a healthy lifestyle while motivational variables accounted for an additional 16% of the variance; perceived benefits, self-efficacy, definition of health, and importance of health were important variables in explaining a healthy lifestyle. The interactions among health-promotive behaviors became stronger after the 12-week exercise program and provided support for the assumption about the inter-relationships of the dimensions.;The findings of the study confirmed that motivational variables were modifiable; the relative importance of each variable should be considered separately in developing health promotion programs to initiate and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Further study was suggested to assess the relationships between perceived present health and motivation to explain interactions among health-promotive behaviors.;The sample consisted of two groups of cardiac patients: 57 persons with a mean age of 64.0 years who participated in a 12-week cardiac rehabilitation exercise program, and 57 comparison subjects with a mean age of 64.6 years who did not participate in the exercise program. A pretest and posttest quasi-experimental design was used to assess motivation and healthy lifestyles at the beginning and end of a 12-week exercise program. The time points for obtaining data were matched for both groups. |
