ABSTRACT
Background: Policemen being an integral part of the law implementation system have long working hours with huge workloads. They may not be able to save time for regular exercise or eat timely healthy meals which may put them at high risk of developing non-communicable diseases like cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, or lifestyle disorders such as obesity. The purpose of this study was to assess their existing physical activity level and sedentary behaviour using Global Physical Activity Questionnaire version 2.0.Objective: To assess the level of physical activity in police officers during work, travel and leisure-time and also determine the sedentary behaviour in them.Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 270 policemen, 168 males and 102 females, from 16 different police station of the Pune city using Global Physical Activity Questionnaire. Along with the analysis of demographic factors, data was analysed to evaluate if the study participants met the criteria for physical activity recommended by WHO. Participants were then divided into different categoridepending on their energy expenditure i.e., MET-mins/week. Their sedentary behavior was calculated in terms of hours spent in sitting position.Result: Out of the total study participants, 50.4% were physically active and 49.6% were physically inactive.3.7% study participants were involved in the moderate-intensity physical activity at the workplace; 32.2% study participants were active in travel domain and 54.8%in leisure-time domain.12.2% of study participants were involved in vigorous-intensity physical activity in leisure-time domain only. 134 participants were inactive, 132 were low-active, 4 were moderately-active with not a single participant in highly-active category. The average amount of time spent sitting in the male participants was 6.11 + 3.03 hours whereas in female participants it was 7.50 + 2.62 hours.Conclusion: Even though 50.4% policemen were physically active, most of them were “low- active” and very few were “moderately-active” whereas not a single study participant was found to be “highly-active”. Sedentary behaviour in terms of average amount of time spent sitting was found to be more in female than male participants. Also,51.11% percentage of the study participants belonged to the overweight and obese category. Thus, there is huge scope for improving the physical activity level as well reducing the sedentary behavior in these professionals.
ABSTRACT
Background: Obesity is of huge concern worldwide. Bariatric surgery is effective in managing morbid obesity and its associated complications. Physiotherapy plays a crucial role in the pre-operative as well as postoperative phases of bariatric surgery. Lack of physical activity in patients who are obese, patients who are posted for bariatric surgery and those who have undergone bariatric surgery can be accounted to a lot of factors. Identifying their perceived level of physical activity along with the facilitators, barriers and beliefs will help in addressing these issues and thereby increasing adherence to physical activity.Objective: To evaluateperceived level, along with barriers, enablers and beliefs of physical activity in patients posted for bariatric surgery. We also evaluated their awareness about the role of physiotherapy in pre and post-operative phases of bariatric surgery.Method:A questionnaire was designed to gain an insight aboutfactors contributing as barriers and enablers, under the domains of physical, psychological, interpersonal and environmental. It also included perceived level and the existing level of physical activity in the study participants.Questions were also designed to understand their awareness about the role of physiotherapy in the pre and post bariatric surgery phase. It was administered to patients posted for bariatric surgery on an interview basis. Sample size was calculated to be 96. The data was then analysed and represented as descriptive statistics.Results: All study participants failed to meet the recommended level of physical activity. The predominant barriers perceived by the study participants belonged to physical, psychological and interpersonal domains; whereas environmental barriers were found to be of least significance. 72.92% of the study participants lacked the knowledge about the role of physiotherapy in the pre-operative phase of bariatric surgery.Conclusions:Interpersonal, physical and psychological being the predominant barriers faced by the study participants highlight the scope of physiotherapeutic intervention. Also these factors can be modified at an individual level, thereby improving the adherence. There is lack of awareness about the role of physiotherapy in the pre-operative phase of bariatric surgery. Thus there is need to increase awareness about the role of physiotherapy in managing obesity and related complications in pre and post-op phases of bariatric surgery.