Investigation of Individual and Social Factors Affecting Sports Participation of Police staffs

Numerous factors may affect the sports participation of people. The present study aimed to investigate the factors affecting sports participation of Police staff.

This descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study was conducted on 350 executive male police staff in Iran in 2017. Data were collected through random sampling using a questionnaire including Sports Activities, Factors Affecting Sports Participation, and demographic information. Data analysis was performed by descriptive statistics and t-test using SPSS 22. P-values less than 0.05 was considered significant.

48% of participants, were in the age group of 35-44 years and 33% had a diploma. The mean score of sports participation in Police staffs was 8.01 ± 2.61 (range 0 to 20). Some individual factors such as attention to health (P=0.002), motivation (P=0.012), body image (P=0.001) and awareness (P=0.045), and some social factors such as feeling secure and confident (P=0.004) and positive experience (P=0.048) had an impact on sports participation of Police staff.

It is recommended to Police sports managers to promote the individual and social factors according to the results of this study, to enhance the sport participation and thus, improve the physical and mental health of Police staffs.