From a health perspective, one of the most frequently used theories to inform behaviour change interventions is social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1977). This theory identifies self-efficacy, defined as confidence in own capabilities, as the main casual determinant of behaviour, and proposes that behavior change results from an interaction of the environment, personal factors and attributes of the behavior itself. It proposes that direct reinforcement (such as social support, achieving goals) contributes to maintaining the behaviour, and that behaviour change is influenced by improvements in a person’s belief that a positive outcome will result. These positive outcomes outweigh the negative outcomes they might experience (Bandura, 1997). According to this, considering the poor adherence to PA among the older people there is a strong need for sustainable behavioural changes (Gardiner et al., 2011).
