Prevalence of barriers to the practice of physical activity in free time in patients with hypertension

The objective of this study was to identify barriers and the stage of behavioural changes for physical activity in the free time in hypertensive patients. This is a cross-sectional study with 55 patients (69.1% women, age range 31-89 years) who were attending to the Chronic Conditions Attention Model in a Basic Unit of Health from Guarapuava, Paraná, Brazil. Barriers for physical activity were determined by a validated instrument. Nineteen barriers were classified as "perceived barrier" (always and almost always) and "non-perceived barrier" (sometimes, rarely, and never). Barriers were categorized in the following dimensions: environmental, social, physiological/physical, psychological/behavioural. The stages of change were used to classify patients as "active" (stages action and maintenance) and "non-active" (stages pre-contemplation, contemplation, and preparation). The frequency (%) of perceived barriers was associated with the activity levels by the Chi-square test and Fisher Exact test. The three most prevalent barriers were: "lack of energy or tiredness" (54.5%), "lack of adequate weather" (47.3%) and "physical limitations" (42.6%). Ten barriers were identified to be more frequent in the non-active patients compared to the active ones, with four from the physiological/physical dimension, three psychological/behavioural, two environmental and one social. Obesity patients had more physiological/physical barriers than the non-obese ones. Given the limitation factors to incorporate a more physically active lifestyle in hypertensive patients, the present study can assist in establishing specific strategies in the health basic attention setting