Implementation of preventive care in a fitness center: Medical and social aspects

Abstract

Objectives to evaluate the possibility of organizing a preventive care service in a modern fitness center through the analysis of visitor's motivation to attend the center.
 Material and methods. The visitors of three large fitness centers filled in a questionnaire, the results of the survey were further processed using cluster analysis.
 Results. In 43.11.6% of cases, the main motive for visiting a fitness center was improving health. The goal of "prevention and treatment of diseases" was chosen by 23.41.4% of visitors. A motive for weight reduction was registered in 29.41.5% of cases. Visitors' ranking of the goals to attend a fitness center showed that in most cases they consider improving health (5.79 points) to be the most important task, in second place keeping fit (5.69 points). Cluster analysis allowed us to divide visitors into 8 groups, the three largest groups can be the target audience for the prevention of noncommunicable socially significant diseases.
 Conclusion. Some categories of fitness center visitors can be the essential target segment for emphasizing preventive activities against non-infectious socially significant diseases.