The motivation for healthy lifestyle habits amongst South African urban corporate consumers

Abstract

Consumers' lifestyle habits play a vital role in their overall well-being. In analysing and grasping the role that healthy lifestyle habits play, the motivations that consumers require to adopt and maintain such habits in an urban corporate setting warranted investigation. Research indicates that consumers have been placing more emphasis on their health and lifestyle habits (LH); however, consumers in general often lack the necessary motivations to maintain these healthy lifestyle habits. In contrast to the emphasis placed on healthy lifestyle habits, there is also a dramatic negative shift in consumers' lifestyle habits due to urbanisation. Poor food choices and a lack of physical activity ascribable to a fast-paced environment may lead to the increasing occurrence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). According to previous research, NCDs are creating a rapidly growing problem, especially in an emergent country such as South Africa. The South African urban corporate setting exposes consumers to a working environment that is synonymous with high levels of stress and time constraints. It is important to identify what healthy lifestyle habits these consumers exhibit. In addition, it is necessary to determine what their motivations are in adopting additional healthy lifestyle habits. A gap exists in current research and knowledge concerning consumers' healthy lifestyle habits and the associated situational motivation factors. This study set out to investigate the lifestyle habits of consumers in a South African urban corporate setting in terms of their health and the situational motivations that encouraged them to follow their current lifestyle. Employers tend to rely on external motivational factors such as incentives to motivate consumers, more particularly employees, to engage in health-promoting wellness programmes. However, research has established that this form of motivation does not have a lasting effect on consumers' health. Furthermore, consumers are seemingly unaware of the required motivations for maintaining a healthy lifestyle and the possible positive influence that it may have on their health. A quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional survey was employed for this study. Data were collected from South African urban corporate consumers (N= 157) between the ages of 18 and 54 years, using convenience sampling. The instrument for data collection during this study was an electronic questionnaire administered through Question Pro®. Face and content validity were taken into consideration, as was construct validity, using an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) followed by a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for the SIMS and lifestyle habits scales (5-point Likert scale). Cronbach alpha values indicated the internal reliability of the yielded factors. The results indicated that, on average, respondents sometimes to often adhered to "LH food and sleep" (mean = 3.27 ± 0.86). However, "LH exercise and relaxation" (mean = 2.60 ± 0.67) were only seldom to sometimes prevalent in the lifestyles of respondents from this study. Although the response regarding "LH dedicated efforts" (mean = 2.99 ± 0.77) was slightly better than that regarding "LH exercise and relaxation", responses indicated that it was only sometimes adhered to and, therefore, was not a dominant lifestyle habit amongst respondents. In contrast, habits of not smoking (mean = 4.01 ± 1.43) and not using alcohol (mean = 3.95 ± 1.2) were prevalent. The respondents from this study showed that healthy lifestyle habits were indeed part of their everyday lives; however, not all to the same extent. These discrepancies could be due to certain limitations and challenges that these respondents faced within their work and home environments. Coinciding with previous research, this study had respondents agree that the leading motivational factors that influenced them to lead their current lifestyle were "intrinsic motivation" (mean = 3.48 ± 0.85) and "identified regulation" (mean = 3.54 ± 0.86). Correlations suggest that as respondents' intrinsic motivation increased, there was an increase in dedicated efforts (r = 0.270) and exercise and relaxation (r = 0.246) amongst the respondents, respectively. Identified regulation positively correlated with both dedicated efforts (r = 0.274) and exercise and relaxation (r = 0.230). Identified regulation was the only motivational factor that correlated with respondents' habit not to smoke (r = 0.277). Also, respondents disagreed that they considered "external motivation" (mean = 2.72 ± 0.85) and "amotivation" (mean = 2.45 ± 0.91) to be the main reasons for leading their current lifestyle. The results obtained in this study suggest that the respondents were more reliant on internally regulated motivational factors rather than external motivational factors. In conclusion, even though all of the different situational motivational factors were prevalent in this study, it was to different extents. The respondents were seemingly goal-oriented and concerned with the benefits of their choices and, to a lesser extent, motivated by external stimuli or rewards associated with certain behaviours. This study's findings highlight the importance of sustainable motivation programmes in encouraging consumers to maintain healthy lifestyle habits. Therefore, the findings concur with literature stating that organisations should shift their approach to internally regulated motivation rather than externally driven motivation. Thus, the study contributes to a better understanding of the healthy lifestyle habits of urban corporate consumers and creating awareness amongst employers and employees about which situational motivational factors are associated with maintaining healthy lifestyle habits.