The topics of the categories

were: reasons to be physically active, reasons to be sedentary, history of physical activity, subjective experience on physical activity, barriers to become physically active and the influence of social support and stress on physical activity. The reasons to be physically active could be categorised into four categories. The most frequently reported reason to be physically active was for the health selleck inhibitor benefits (reported by 65% of the participants), followed by enjoyment (44%), continuation of an active lifestyle in the past (28%), and functional reasons (26%). An example of a reported functional reason is that physical activity is necessary for certain daily life activities, like transportation or gardening. Topic  Response % Reasons to be physically activea

 health benefits 65  enjoyment 44  continuation of former active lifestyle 28  function 26 History of physical activity  gymnastics at school 88  sports after age 30 yr 49  physically active in lifestyle activities 48 Subjective experience of physical activity  pleasant 85  unpleasant 30  none 10  high self-efficacy for physical activity 85 Social support  positive 47  negative 3  positive and negative 4  none, not applicable 47 Effect of social support on physical AZD2281 order activity  positive 19  negative 1  none 80 Topic  Response % Reasons to be sedentaryb  poor weather 48  health problems 43  lack of intrinsic motivation 11  miscellaneous answers 16  none 20 Barriers to becoming physically active  weather 75  health 68  weather, health-specific 53  financial constraints 32  not able to pay money 20  not willing to pay money 12  sleep 10  exercise facilities in neighbourhood 7  fear of movement 6  shame 4  time 3 Stress  positive influence on physical activity 18 Vasopressin Receptor  negative influence on physical activity 13  none, not applicable 68 aNumber of reasons reported: one = 47, two = 57, three = 5, four = 6. The reasons to be sedentary could be grouped into three categories and there were 18 responses that did not fit into a category. (See Appendix 1 on the

eAddenda for details of these isolated responses.) The most frequently reported reason to be sedentary was poor weather (48%), followed by health problems (43%) and lack of intrinsic motivation (11%). In addition 20% of the participants reported having no reason to be sedentary. On average, participants reported 1.7 (range 1 to 4) reasons to be physically active and 1.2 (range 0 to 3) reasons to be sedentary. Self-efficacy for physical activity was explored during a conversation with the participant about whether he/she felt confident in the ability to perform the physical activities he/she executes. If a participant reported confidence this was categorised as ‘high self-efficacy’. Positive social support for physical activity was reported by almost 50% of the study population.