Barriers to exercise in African American women with physical disabilities

Objective: To examine what factors African American women with one or more physical disabilities perceive as barriers to exercise and how they rank them. Setting: Department of Disability and Human Development at a major university. Study Design: Data were collected through telephone interview using a newly developed instrument (Barriers to Physical Exercise and Disability [B-PED]) that addressed issues related to physical activity and the subjects' disability. Subjects: Fifty subjects were asked questions about their participation and interest in structured exercise. Results: The four major barriers were cost of the exercise program (84.2%), lack of energy (65.8%), transportation (60.5%), and not knowing where to exercise (57.9%). Barriers commonly reported in nondisabled persons (eg, lack of time, boredom, too lazy) were not observed in our sample. Only 11% of the subjects reported that they were not interested in starting an exercise program. The majority of subjects (81.5%) wanted to join an exercise program but were restricted by the barriers reported. Conclusion: African American women with a physical disability are interested in becoming more active but are limited in doing so because of their inability to overcome several barriers to increased physical activity participation.