Investigating Obstacles of Participation in Physical Activities and Exercise among the Disabled of Kermanshah Province

Physical activities can increase life expectancy and cause happiness, relationship with others, participation in collective activities, and prevent isolation and boredom. The aim of the present study is to investigate obstacles of participation in physical activities and exercise among the disabled of Kermanshah Province.

the population of the present study included all the disabled in Kermanshah Province. Among the population, 379 participants were selected using multistage stratified random sampling method. The research instrument is a researcher-made questionnaire (the questionnaire of obstacles of participation in physical activities for the disabled). The formal and content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by five professors of the Department of Sport Management (CVI=0.91). to investigate the reliability of the questionnaire, a pilot study was conducted on 30 participants and the Cronbach’s alpha coefficients was obtained for personal, structural, technical, basic, and sociocultural obstacles as 0.83 to 0.93. Regarding the fact that Cronbach’s alpha coefficients are bigger than the standard value as 0.70.

results obtained from exploratory factor analysis results in identification of five personal, structural, technical, basic, and sociocultural obstacles. Findings also indicated that among these five factors, personal obstacle was considered as the most important (T=11.58** x2=0.81) and sociocultural obstacles as the least significant factor (T=4.95 **** x2=0.30) among the obstacles.

the disabled in Kermanshah Province considered most obstacles in relation with personal obstacles. Supportive approaches for the disabled should be comprehensive in their participation in physical activities, and they should not be limited to physical and ergonomic structures.