Stages of Behavior Change for physical activity and associated factors among technicaladministrative servers of a federal university

Abstract

The benefits that the regular practice of physical activity (PA) provides to health and its importance in preventing and fighting chronic diseases. The aim of this study was to identify the Stages of Behavior Change (SBC) for PA among technicaladministrative servers and its association with sociodemographic and health risk factors. This cross-sectional study investigated 622 technical-administrative servers (337 women) from a Brazilian federal university. SBC for PA, sociodemographic information (gender, age, marital status and educational level) and health risk factors (inadequate eating habits, excessive alcohol consumption, smoking, commuting and PA at work) were collected through questionnaires. Multinomial regression with adjustment for the hierarchical level was applied and significance level of 5% was adopted. The distribution of technical-administrative servers in SBC for PA identified prevalence of 9.1% and 6.5% in the pre-contemplation stage, 24.6% and 33.5% in contemplation, 33.3% and 22 6% in preparation, 5.6% and 12.2% in action and 27.4% and 25.2% in maintenance stages between men and women, respectively. Lower odds ratio of being in the preparation stage was identified among women (OR=0.62; CI95%=0.41; 0.93) while those with inadequate eating habits were more odds to be in the “pre-contemplation + contemplation” (OR=2.77; CI95%=1.85; 4.15) and preparation stages (OR=1.75; CI95%=1.12; 2.70). Over 60% of technical-administrative servers are insufficiently active (pre-contemplation, contemplation and preparation stages) and factors associated with SBC were female sex and inadequate eating habits.