Comparação das barreiras percebidas para a prática de atividade física de acordo com o sexo e nível de atividade física

Objective: To compare the perceived barriers to the practice of physical activity of adolescents, according to gender and level of physical activity. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2018 with a representative sample of 1513 high school students from public schools. Barriers and level of physical activity were assessed using validated instruments. Adolescents were divided into three groups: inactive, insufficiently active, active. Descriptive statistics were used to verify differences in proportions regarding gender and Kruskal-Wallis for groups. Results: For girls: "having laziness" (n=470), "climate" (n=437) and "not having company" (n=428) were the most reported. For boys: "not having company" (n=186), "not having someone to take" (n=185) and "lack of places" (n=181). Among the groups (active, inactive, insufficient), only for the girls, there were differences: "finds it boring" (p=0.013), "climate" (p=0.003 and p=0.014) and "cannot pay" (p=0.005). Conclusion: Inactive girls perceive more the barriers "finds boring" and "climate" when compared to those insufficiently active and active, respectively. And, insufficiently active girls perceive more the barrier "cannot pay" when compared to inactive girls. For boys, there was no significant difference when comparing groups.