Perceived Barriers to Physical Activity among Overweight and Obese Adult Patients Attending General Out-Patient Clinic in Lagos University Teaching Hospital

Background: Globally, only 1 in 4 adults engage in the recommended amounts of physical activity for health. The increasing rates of physical inactivity are partly caused by perceived obstacles to physical activity. Physical inactivity is the primary cause of roughly 21-25% of the burden of breast and colon cancer, diabetes, and ischemic heart disease.

Study Aim: To determine the perceived barriers to physical activity among overweight and obese adult patients attending the GOPC, LUTH using the barrier portion of the Exercise Benefit and Barrier Scale (EBBS).

Methodology: The research was a cross-sectional, descriptive study conducted in LUTH. Data was collected by means of questionnaire and interview. Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS IBM) version 25 was used for data entry, cleaning, and assessment. Frequency and percentage were used to represent all categorical parameters, and means, standard deviation, or, in the case of skewed continuous variables, median and interquartile range, were used to summarize them via systematic random sampling, 285 overweight and obese adults between the ages of 18 and 64 were chosen.

Result: The majority of overweight and obese adults (78.6%) felt that there were moderate to high levels of barriers to physical activity, most of which had to do with physical exertion. Age, family type, highest degree of education, type of occupation, median earnings, co-morbidity, smoking, and alcohol consumption, though significantly associated with levels of perceived barriers, were not independent predictors of a high level of perceived barriers.

Recommendation: Further evaluation of the perceived barriers to physical activity should be carried out to identify overweight and obese adults who encounter high barriers to physical activity. During lifestyle counseling, physical exertion, the most common barrier subscale to physical activity in this study, should be considered and addressed as appropriate.