ABSTRACT
Studies have shown that health behaviours are one of the key determinants of cancer survivors’ quality of life, but the real rewards of health—feeling better, living longer, and worrying less—seem to be attached to a distant future. That is why we need to identify and reinforce the intrinsic value of health behaviours that would help cancer survivors maintain those healthy behaviours over time. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the impact of outcome expectancies on health behaviour intention of cancer survivors. It was because, according to the Health Action Process Approach (HAPA), health behaviour intention could be influenced by several factors, including outcome expectancies. This study was conducted on 90 cancer survivors, aged between 15–50 years old. Self-reported instrument and informal interviews were used, such as The Health Behaviour Intention Scale to measure the dependent variable (health behaviours intention), and Life Orientation Test Revised (LOT-R) to measure the independent variable (outcome expectancies). Linear regression analyses indicated that outcome expectancies had positive and significant impact on cancer survivors’ health behaviour intention, explained by 54% variance in health behaviours and the β value which reached up to 0.728 with p > 0.01. This means that with every 1-point increase of outcome expectancies, health behaviour intention also increased by 0.728. Findings from the current study suggested that, among cancer survivors, outcome expectancies may influence the degree of health behaviour intention and help them adopt health behaviours.
