Perceived Barriers to Exercise of Adults: Difference by Age, Gender and Residence

Kim, In Ja; Lee, Eun Ok; Choi, Hee Jung

Abstract

PURPOSE
Perceived barriers to exercise were investigated for adults. METHOD: A total 1266 subjects were selected by a quota sampling method with age, gender, and residence. Perceived barriers were categorized under 4 groups: knowledge, psychological, physical, and external factors. All 23 items of perceived barriers were responded on a dichotomous (yes/no) scale. RESULT: Mean number of perceived barriers was 4.61 and 87.9% subjects perceived at least one barrier which prevented involvement in exercise. External barriers ranked highest, followed in order by psychological, knowledge, and physical barriers. Most factors of perceived barriers were found to be different by age, gender, and residence, in that, the younger, female, living in Daejeon subjects were found to respond with more barriers than the older, male, living in Chungju or Seoul.
CONCLUSION
Perceived barriers to exercise are differenct by age, gender, and residence. Therefore, it is recommended that age, gender, and residence of subjects must be considered in order to develop exercise programs and public campaigns.