Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.
Department of English Language Teaching, University of Kelaniya, Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.
PLoS One. 2020 May 12;15(5):e0232956. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0232956. eCollection 2020.
Benefits of physical activities are numerous. Barriers for physical exercise may differ among middle aged and older adults. Therefore, identifying and comparing the barriers for participating in regular physical exercises among middle aged and older adults will be useful in designing age specific physical exercise programmes.
This descriptive cross sectional study was carried out among 206 Sri Lankan adults in the age range of 40-84 years in the Colombo North region of Sri Lanka using culturally validated questionnaires to determine and compare the barriers and factors associated with regular physical activity participation. Majority were males (56%) and 54% were < 60 years. People in the age range of 40-59 years were considered as middle age and ≥ 60 years as older adults. Bivariate analysis and multivariate analysis was carried out to determine the significant factors that are associated with regular physical activity participation.
Lack of free time (52%), feeling too lazy (26%) and bad weather (29%) were the main barriers for the participants. In < 60 years, high level of income (p = 0.008) and in ≥ 60 years, being a male (p = 0.016), having a high level of education (P = 0.002) and a high BMI (p = 0.002) had a significant negative association with the level of physical activities.
Contrary to findings from surveys in several developed countries, this study showed that having a high level of education and being a male were strongly related with lack of physical activity participation.
身体活动有诸多益处。中老年人参加体育锻炼的障碍可能存在差异。因此，确定和比较中老年人参加有规律体育锻炼的障碍，对于设计针对特定年龄段的体育锻炼计划将是有益的。
本描述性横断面研究在斯里兰卡科伦坡北部地区的 206 名年龄在 40-84 岁的成年人中进行，使用文化验证的问卷来确定和比较与定期体育活动参与相关的障碍和因素。大多数是男性（56%），54%年龄<60 岁。年龄在 40-59 岁的人被认为是中年人，年龄≥60 岁的人被认为是老年人。进行了单变量分析和多变量分析，以确定与定期体育活动参与相关的显著因素。
缺乏空闲时间（52%）、感觉太懒（26%）和恶劣天气（29%）是参与者的主要障碍。在<60 岁的人群中，高收入水平（p=0.008），在≥60 岁的人群中，男性（p=0.016）、高教育水平（P=0.002）和高 BMI（p=0.002）与身体活动水平呈显著负相关。
与一些发达国家的调查结果相反，本研究表明，高教育水平和男性与缺乏身体活动参与密切相关。
