Prevalência de inatividade física e fatores associados: um estudo com policiais militares de Macapá-AP

Abstract

The sociocultural changes observed in the lifestyle of populations, especially in high-income countries and more recently in economically emerging countries, demonstrate an increase in the prevalence of insufficient levels of physical activity, in addition to factors associated with the risk of comorbidities. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of Insufficient Levels of Physical Activity (ILPA) and identify associated factors in 162 Military Police Officers from three Battalions in the city of Macapá-AP, of both genders and of all ranks, aged between 23 and 54 years, 74,1% were male and 25,9% female, participated in the study. Assessment of the level of physical activity was obtained using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) version 8 short. The identification of the association factors were obtained by the Socioeconomic Classification Questionnaire of the Brazilian Association of Research Companies version 2018, and the Body Mass Index (BMI) by measures of body weight and height. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics based on the calculation of mean, standard deviation and relative frequency in percentage with a confidence interval of 95%. The association between the level of physical activity and sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors was performed using the chi-square independence test and Spearman's correlation coefficient. The Prevalence Ratio of the sedentary/insufficiently active level was estimated using Poisson regression models. A significance level of p < 0,05 was adopted. It was identified that 40,1% are very active, 32,1%are active, 13,6% are irregularly physically active and 14,2% sedentary, contrasting with the results of the Body Mass Index (BMI) of 22,2% they are obese, 51,2% overweight and 26,5% normal body weight. Men were more active than women and had a higher prevalence of Insufficient Levels of Physical Activity, with a significant association with social class and health perception. It is suggested, therefore, that further studies can investigate the impact of socioeconomic and sociodemographic variables in different regional contexts on Insufficient Levels of Physical Activity in military police officers.