Survey of elderly women’s viewpoint from barriers participation in sport

Nowadays, the expansion of urbanization and technology has caused a decrease in physical activity among society’s members. The exercise is one of the main ways to achieve the health. The aim of this study was to evaluate the perspective of women on the barriers to participation in exercise in Tonekabon City. In this descriptive-analytical study, the sample was 350 women aged 40-70 years in Tonekabon. Random samples were taken from three parks in Tonekabon. The data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire including five areas of managerial, in-person, peripheral, psychological and time-limited factors based on Likert scale. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by physical education instructors and its reliability was confirmed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.91 (p<0.05). Totally, 40/1% of samples were 45-49.9 years old and%50 of them had the experience of group exercise at least once. There was a significant relationship between the barriers to participation in exercise and variables including educational level (p=0.00), income level (p= 0.004), having sportsperson in the family (p=0.001) and having sportsfriends (p=0.001), respectively. In this study, the barriers to participation in exercise from the perspective of women were factors such as low level of education, absence of a sportsperson in the family and sportsfriends, as well as lack of places suitable for women's exercise. By organizing effective factors in the participation of women in sport, the society's policymakers can take steps to maintain the health of this group. Providing educational programs through mass media on the beneficial effects of sports activities can make widespread changes in the perspective of women.