Table 2.

Perceived exercise benefits of regular physical exercise, for the total sample, and by how interested respondents were in participating in an exercise program

	Agree or strongly agree with statement		Mean scorea	% Agree or strongly agree			Chi-squared test (3 groups) p value
	%	N		Yes, interested in participation	Maybe interested in participation	Not interested in participation
1. Improve my heart and lung fitness	84	301/358	3.1	90	85	77	0.03
2. Improve my health or reduce my risk of disease	76	269/354	2.9	84	77	68	0.02
3. Build up my muscle strength	75	267/354	2.9	91	73	62	< 0.001
4. Lose weight or improve my shape	64	224/348	2.7	77	61	55	0.002
5. Feel less tension and stress	64	226/352	2.7	81	63	49	< 0.001
6. Improve my self-esteem	62	220/354	2.7	79	59	47	< 0.001
7. Feel less depressed	56	200/357	2.6	75	54	39	< 0.001
8. Meet new people	45	160/352	2.4	59	37	40	0.001
9. Feel more attractive	37	130/347	2.2	50	34	28	0.003
10. Do better on my job	34	105/312	2.1	46	29	27	0.005

^aOn a 0–4 scale, with 0 = strongly disagree, 1 = disagree, 2 = neither agree nor disagree, 3 = agree, 4 = strongly agree