Physical activity patterns and its environmental associations among public school teachers in the selected educational zone in the Eastern part of Sri Lanka.

Introduction: It is a well-established fact that the prevalence of physical inactivity is rising at a global level in all stages of life with a significant association for increased non-communicable disease burden.

Objectives: To describe the physical activity (PA) patterns and its environmental associations among school teachers in Kattankudy Educational Division (KED).

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 392 government school teachers selected by multistage cluster sampling method in 2018. Sociodemographic factors, environmental factors, and physical activity patterns were assessed by using a validated questionnaire including The International Physical Activity Questionnaire long version and Physical and Social Environment Scale and the level of physical activity was categorized as sufficient an insufficient group. chi-square and Mann- Whitney U test was performed at a 5% level of significance.

 

Results: It was found that each participant on average spends 3005.7 (SD) MET-minutes total energy per week. The main contributor to the energy expenditure was engaging in home cleaning and gardening [1516.9 (SD) MET-minutes per week]. People engaging in job, transport, leisure-related activity was less. The majority (85%) of the participants had a sufficient level of PA. The overall physical and social environment was less favorable to engaging PA. Insufficient PA level was significantly associated among young and not having chronic disease teachers. There was no significant association found between the PA level and the environment.

 

Conclusions and Recommendations: Despite the known- conducive environment, the majority of school teachers in KED had a sufficient level of PA. Young teachers and those who not having chronic disease did not meet the sufficient level of PA. Young teachers should be motivated to engage in PA. The facilities have to be arranged to motivate the teachers to participate in a job, transport, and leisure-related activity.

 

Keywords

Physical activity, teachers, physical and social environment.