142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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311013
Barriers to Physical Activity Among Colombian College Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Monday, November 17, 2014

José Meneses-Echávez, PT, MPH , Grupo GICAEDS. Facultad de Cultura Física, Deporte y Recreación., Universidad Santo Tomás, Bogotá, Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia, Colombia
Robinson Ramírez-Vélez, PT, PhD , Grupo GICAEDS. Facultad de Cultura Física, Deporte y Recreación., Universidad Santo Tomás, Bogotá, Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia, Colombia
Fernando Rubio-Henao, Educator , Programa de Licenciatura en Educación Física y Deporte, Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia
Katherine González-Ruiz, PT, Master in Physical Activity for Health , Department of Health, Universidad Manuela Beltrán, Bogotá, Colombia
Yisel Estrada, PT, Master in Physiology , Grupo GICAEDS. Facultad de Cultura Física, Deporte y Recreación., Universidad Santo Tomás, Bogotá, Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia
Jorge Correa-Bautista, PT, PED , Centro de Estudios en Medición de la Actividad Física, Escuela de Medicina y Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá, Colombia
AIM: The aim of this study was to analyze barriers to physical activity (PA) in college students, allowing comparisons between men and women.

METHODS: 4.803 college students with a median age of 20±2.6 (range 17-30) years (61.3% female) were evaluated. Participants who stated that they did not get enough PA were surveyed with respect to barriers to PA. The Barriers to Being Active Quiz is a 21-item scale that provides a measure of 7 self-reported barriers to being physically active. In this instrument, the 7 perceived barrier categories are lack of time, social influences, lack of energy, lack of willpower, fear of injury, lack of skill, and lack of resources. Barriers were analysed for all respondents, as well as by sex and age group for cases with complete data. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate differences between sexes group. The level of significance (p<0.05) was adjusted for multiple testing according to Bonferroni (p<0.01).

RESULTS: The three most frequently cited barriers were fear of injury (89.5%), lack of skills (82.1%), and lack of resources (66.1%). Lack of energy (35.4% vs. 47.7%), and lack of willpower (45.5% vs. 58.3%) were more frequently stated by female respondents than male respondents. These differences between men and women were significant (p=0.003; p<0.001) after adjustment for respondents’ sex.

CONCLUSIONS: The present study provides relevant data on barriers to PA in college students. By revealing appreciable differences between men and women, this study has implications for efforts to increase college student’s PA.

Learning Areas:

Chronic disease management and prevention
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related research
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Analyze barriers to physical activity (PA) in college students, allowing comparisons between men and women.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I and my research team have worked have been worked in physical activity from a considerable time studying some fields (cardiovascular risk factors, cancer, health-promotion, etc). We have participated in the design of the National Health-Survey in Colombia. Further, this project has been developed through a close alliance among several Colombian institutions and the support of the Colombian ministry of health.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.