Barreiras para a prática de atividade física em idosos brasileiros: revisão de escopo

Abstract

Aiming to identify the barriers to physical activity (PA) in the elderly, a scoping review was conducted in December 2020, with searches in seven electronic databases and in reference lists. Were searched original articles developed in Brazil that presented barriers to PA in samples of older adults (≥ 60 years), without restrictions on the study designs, methods, representativeness of samples, gender and contextual status of the elderly. From 911 initial articles, 13 were included in the synthesis, involving older adults participating in socialization groups, institutionalized and PA projects participants, with women being the majority in all samples. Eighteen of the 30 barriers identified are intrapersonal in nature. "Illness, pain or injury" was the most mentioned barrier (n = 9), being associated with physical inactivity in one of the included studies. "Lack of safety" (n = 6), "fear of falling/injury" (n = 3), and "feeling active enough" (n = 3) were other frequently reported barriers. Intrapersonal barriers are the most perceived by Brazilian elderly, with "pain, illness, and/or injury" being the most frequent. Future studies are important, in addition to identifying the main barriers to PA, to analyze their possible association with physical inactivity in Brazilian elderly.