Perceived Barriers Of Physical Activity In Danish Manual Wheelchair Users

Physical activity reduces the risk of chronic diseases in mobility disabled populations including manual wheelchair users (MWCU). Nevertheless, physical activity level is low in MWCU. PURPOSE: To define physical activity barrier prevalance and impact among Danish MWCU and association with physical activity level. METHODS: We translated The ‘Barriers to Physical Activity Questionnaire – Mobility Impairment’ (BPAQ-MI) from English to Danish according to published guidelines. Danish MWCU (N=133) completed BPAQ-MI online; 51% were female, 64% had a spinal cord injury, and 50% were unemployed. Mean ± SD for age, BMI, & years in chair were: 48±13 yrs, 25.8 ± 6.3 kg/m2, & 17±14 yrs. The BPAQ-MI covers subdomains of intrapersonal, interpersonal, organizational and community barriers. Participants first indicated if a barrier hindered them from physical activity participation in the last 3 months. If “no”, impact was scored as 0, and if “yes”, impact was scored 1-very small to 5-very big. Self-reported physical activity level (PAL) was rated from 1-“not being physically active at all” to 10-“extremely physically active”. Individual barrier prevalence was computed as frequencies (% of yes). Individual barrier impact was computed as 1 to 5 and reported as median. Summed barrier impact was computed as the sum of individual questions within each subdomain. Spearman’s rho identified associations between PAL and subdomain summed barrier impact. RESULTS: The 3 most prevalent barriers included 2 intrapersonal (~63%) and 1 community (55%) barrier. The 3 most impactful barriers all had a median score of 5 (very big impact), but were less common: 2 organizational (0.8%, 23%), and 1 community (40%) barrier, PAL was inversely associated with interpersonal (r=-0.175, p=0.05) and intrapersonal (r=-0.523, p<0.00) summed impact. PAL was not associated with organizational (r=0.124, p=0.16) or community (r=-0.025, p=0.77) summed impact. CONCLUSION: Intrapersonal barriers were highly prevelant. Increased cumulative intrapersonal barrier impact was moderately associated with lower PAL, indicating that a higher perception of physical activity barriers are related to lower PAL. Finally, the results suggests that specific organizational and community barriers could be impactful at the individual level when they are present