Barriers for the use of outdoor gyms in adults and elderly from a southern city of Brazil

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify barriers to use Outdoor Gyms (OGs) for physical activity (PA) practice and to examine their association with leisure-time PA, demographic and socioeconomic variables in adults and elderly. This cross-sectional population-based study enrolled 431 adults and elderly (66.8% women) aged 18 to 87 years living in the surroundings (up to 500 meters) of four OGs. Information about using OGs for PA practice, barriers to use OGs, leisure-time PA, demographic and socioeconomic variables were collected by domiciliary interview. Associations between barriers to use OGs with other included variables were analyzed using Chi-Square test. None barriers was reported for 29.2% (95%CI: 24.9-33.5) of the participants, being almost of then OGs’ users. The most reported barriers to use OGs were lack of time (21.6%; 95%CI: 17.7-25.5), lack of interest (16.5%; 95%CI: 13.0-20.0) and laziness (10.7%; 95%CI: 7.8-13.6). Intrapersonal barriers were more often among men, interpersonal among women and environmental among those with less educational level (p < 0.05). In conclusion, OGs’ users perceived fewer barriers than non-users, and most barriers to the use of OGs were intrapersonal with lack of time being the most prevalent.