Physical Activity Among Family Medicine Trainees in Makkah Almukarramah City, Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

Background: It is recognized that the health of physiciansdirectly impacts the health of the larger population, asnumerous studies have established a link between the healthbehaviors of physicians and their interactions with patients.Objectives: To assess physical activity practice among thefamily medicine trainees in Makkah AlMukarramah and itsassociation with various socio-demographic as well as toidentify the main barriers of being physically active from theparticipants’ prospective.Methods: A cross-sectional study was implemented includedall family medicine trainees in Makkah AlMukarramah. Selfadministered questionnaire was used for data collection. Itconsisted of three parts The first part contains questions aboutsocio-demographic characteristics of the participants. Thesecond part inquired about participants` physical activity. Theshort form of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire(IPAQ) that provide common instrument to estimate the level ofphysical activity has been utilized in this regard. The third partof the questionnaire inquires about barriers for being physicallyactive (12 items) as well as reasons for being physically active(7 items).Results: The study included 60 family medicine trainees with aresponse rate of 98.4%. Their age ranged between 25 and 35years with a mean of 28.17 years and standard deviation of2.38 years. More than half of them (55%) were females. Mostof them (71.7%) were married. All were Saudis. According tothe he short form of the International Physical ActivityQuestionnaire (IPAQ), almost half (48.3%) of family medicinetrainees had low level of physical activity whereas 40% hadmoderate level of physical activity. Only 11.7% of themreported high level of physical activity. Regarding durationof sitting (minutes/day), slightly less than half of the familymedicine trainees (48.3%) reported sitting period more than360 minutes/day. High level of physical activity was reportedamong 14.8% of male family medicine trainees compared to9.1% of females. In addition, moderate level of physicalactivity was higher reported among males than females (59.3%versus 24.2%). This difference was statistically significant,p=0.007. Lack of time to exercise because of academic andwork responsibilities, less suitable places to exerciseparticularly, no exercise facilities at home and having otherrecreational activities to do with friends were the commonestreported barriers for being physically active.Conclusions: Almost half of family medicine trainees inMakkah had low level of physical activity. Males had significanthigher level of physical activity than females. Overcoming thebarriers together with consideration of family medicine trainees’suggestions may contribute to a further increase in the level ofphysical activity among them.