Barriers to physical activity in elderly: an analysis with focus groups

Abstract

The physical active behavior is influenced by various factors. When the factors influence in a negative way, they are named as barriers for physical activity (PA) and these are perceived in different way in accordance with sex, socioeconomic status (SES) and age. The objective of this study was to identify the barriers for PA in older adults considering different SES. A focus group methodology was employed with 68.9±7.7 years old (n=17) individuals. The subjects were grouped in accordance of the SES classification, previous identified in structured interview. The content analysis was used to categorize the responses in dimensions and afterwards the descriptive statistics was used through absolute and relative frequency to identify similar responses with software SPSS 11.0. The most prevalent barriers in the high SES group were those related to “demographic and biological” (33.9%) and “psychological, cognitive and emotional” (29.7%) dimensions. In the low SES, the most prevalent were those related to “environmental” (45.6%) and “psychological, cognitive and emotional” (26%) dimensions. It is concluded that older people with a different SES perceive barriers in a different way, fact that demands a different attention for the actions of PA promotion.