Barreiras para o aconselhamento para a prática de atividade física por profissionais de saúde da atenção básica

Abstract

The present study was aimed at identify the barriers for physical activity counseling by health professionals in basic care in João Pessoa - PB. This is a cross-sectional epidemiological study with 591 health professionals (medicals, nurses, nursing technicians and community health agents), with a majority of females 78.6%, mean age of 43, 2.5 ± 9 , 6 years old, who worked at the Family Health Strategy (ESF) in João Pessoa - PB. Information was collected on perceived obstacles in physical activity counseling (lack of time, lack of knowledge, lack of professionals to guide, lack of available instructional material, lack of environmental resources and lack of financial resources of the user) and sociodeomgraphic variables(gender, age, education, gross income, skin color, amount of daily attendance, weekly workload, marital status and residency in João Pessoa - PB). In the data analysis, the frequency distribution (relative and absolute) was used, and for the variables measured on a numerical scale, standard deviation and confidence interval 95% (CI95%) were used. The analyzes were performed through the Stata 13.0. The main perceived barriers were lack of available instructional material (36.9%), lack of professionals to guide (29.6%), lack of knowledge (24.4%), lack of environmental resources (20.8%), lack of time (16.3%) and lack of financial resources (14.4%). It was concluded that the most prevalent barriers were: lack of available instructional materials, lack of professionals to guide and lack of knowledge. Actions should be focused on these barriers to decrease their impact in decision made on the practice of counseling for the practice of physical activity by health professionals in basic care.