Factors Influencing the Participation of Middle-Aged and Older Latin-American Women in Physical Activity: A Stroke-Prevention Behavior

Abstract

Despite the known benefits of regular physical activity for preventing stroke and cardiovascular disease, middle-aged and older Latin-American women continue to be physically inactive and demonstrate a high incidence of obesity. Ethnographic methodology was used to explore factors that influenced this health behavior in 25 Latin-American women. Perceptions of health, the health activities in which they engaged, and the factors that influenced their participation in physical activity comprised the three categories of responses. Facilitators and barriers were identified as the two primary categories and were further sorted into intrinsic or extrinsic factors. Conclusions of this study were that these Latin American women, despite multiple role demands and other barriers, participated in some form of physical activity; however, culturally sensitive strategies are needed to promote sustained physical activity in this population.

Physical activity in Iranian older adults who experienced fall during the past 12 months

“…Another study also revealed physical illness as a barrier to physical activity [25]. It appears that for fall prevention strategies to be effective, exercise educational programs should not be undertaken in isolation, but in partnership with other interventions and integrated into generic health.…”

Identifying Barriers to Remaining Physically Active After Rehabilitation: Differences in Perception Between Physical Therapists and Older Adult Patients

“…Both internal and external barriers have been identified as real challenges to physical activity participation for persons with conditions managed by physical therapists, including osteoarthritis, 29 chronic pain, 1,21 low back pain, 16,19 and stroke. 36,45 There is limited research on interventions to change internal barriers to physical activity, and fostering long-term change in physical activity participation has had only partial success. For example, education on the benefits of physical activity, counseling to support change, referral to exercise groups, and selfefficacy training have all been found to improve short-term physical activity participation but not to support long-term change.…”

Self-Regulatory Imagery and Physical Activity in Middle-Aged and Older Adults: A Social-Cognitive Perspective

“…A large modification index also suggested inserting a direct path from barriers to outcome expectations. This path was added based on research that supports barriers being inversely related to benefits of PA (Vaughn, 2009). Thus it was expected that individuals who perceive more barriers to PA would have less positive outcome expectations.…”