Abstract

Background and aim: a healthy and active lifestyle is an essential determinant of any individual's health. And the individual's perceptions of the diseases will impact the way preventive behaviors are adopted, the way the individual adapts to the disease, disease management and, overall, the prevention of disease progress. The aim of the present study was explaining women's perception of regular physical activity based on PEN-3 model. Material and Method: this study is qualitative and of directed content analysis type. 41 women with prediabetes and 9 employees of health centers, using purposeful sampling, were entered into this study. The data were obtained using individual semi-structured interviews based on PEN-3 model. Graneheim and Lundman's method was used for data analysis. Result: during the data analysis process, a main category that included perceptional factors regarding physical activity and 6 sub-categories including knowledge, attitude, perceived benefits, perceived threat, perceived barriers and Self-efficacy were extracted from the data text. Conclusion: The findings obtained were positive and negative perceptions of women with prediabetes regarding physical activity in a sociocultural scope that can be considered in designing interventions based on PEN-3 model for changing and improving exercise behavior in women with prediabetes.