The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of exercise self-efficacy and exercise benefits/barriers on doing regular exercise among elderly.

The subjects were 484 older adults who were eligible and agreed to participate in this study. Data were collected from July 27 to September 21, 2007 by face-to-face, and private interviews. The questionnaires consisted of Exercise Self-efficacy, and Exercise Benefits/Barriers. The collected data were analyzed with the SPSS 13.0 program, which was used for frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test, ANOVA, and logistic regression.

The major findings of this study were as follows: 1) Approximately 56.8% of participants were doing regular exercise. Study participants' exercise self-efficacy mean score was 36.30, exercise benefits 2.74, and exercise barriers 2.03; 2) There was significant correlation between exercise self-efficacy and exercise benefits; 3) Significant factors influencing regular exercise were self-efficacy, exercise benefits and exercise barriers.

These results suggested that nurses should emphasize exercise benefits/barriers and reinforce self-efficacy to improve regular exercise in the elderly.