RESEARCH ARTICLE


Levels of Physical Activity among Kuwaiti Adults and Perceived Barriers



Abeer Khaled Al-Baho*, Ashraaf Al-Naar, Hadwa Al-Shuaib, Jibu K Panicker, Sherine Gaber
Health Promotion Department, Ministry of Health, Kuwait City, Kuwait


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Creative Commons License
© Al-Baho et al.; Licensee Bentham Open

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode), which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Health Promotion Department, Ministry of Health, Kuwait Sulbikhat-P.O.Box:5, Safat-Postal Code:13001; Tel: +965-24620682/+965-97290204; Fax: +965-24835331; E-mails: dralbaho@gmail.com, abkhb1959@gmail.com


Abstract

Background:

Regular Physical activity is associated with many positive health outcomes related to prevention and control of obesity and non-communicable diseases which have a high prevalence in Kuwait. The aim of our study was to investigate the level of physical activity among Kuwaiti adults and interfering barriers.

Methods:

A cross sectional randomized study was used to collect data about physical activity level among 858 Kuwaiti adults using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire, Arabic version and perceived barriers to physical activity were investigated using an ecological framework. Regression analysis was used to determine the predictors of physical activity among participants.

Results:

The results revealed that 19.13% of the sample did not perform any physical activity and 38.1% had low physical activity level, with no significant difference between males and females. The most common perceived barriers were hot weather (75.9%), work duties (71.21%), laziness (44.3%), lack of time (38.6%), family responsibilities (36.1%) and chronic diseases (33.33%).

Conclusion:

The level of physical activity among Kuwaiti adults was found to be low. This could be a reason for high levels of obesity in Kuwait. A comprehensive health promotion program including environmental and social modifications in addition to health education is suggested to improve physical activity among Kuwaiti adults.

Keywords: Adults, Barriers, Gulf countries, IPAQ, Kuwait, Physical activity.