PERCEIVED BENEFITS AND BARRIERS OF EXERCISE AMONG FEMALE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS.

Background: Many individuals do not participate in sufficient physical activity due to low perceived benefits and high-perceived barriers to exercise. Objectives: To assess the level of perceived benefits and barriers to physical activity, describe the level of physical activity as regards frequency of exercise and study relation between physical activity status and perceived exercise benefits and barriers among female university students in KKU. Subjects and methods: A cross-sectional study carried out at Mahala campus for Girls, KKU. 400 students from four colleges were selected by simple random sampling. The Exercise Benefits/Barriers Scale used to determine perceived the benefits and barriers to exercise. The Godin questionnaire also used to determine frequency of exercise Results: The benefits mean value was 3.29, compared to the barriers mean value of 2.69, indicating strong agreement with the benefits of exercise. The most perceived benefit item was; ?Exercising improves my self-concept?, whilst the most perceived barrier item was; ?There are too few places for me to exercise?. About 65% of students were physically inactive. Inactive students had significantly higher mean barrier score than active students. Obese students and overweight had significantly higher mean barrier score than normal-weight students. Conclusions and recommendations: The highest mean of benefits was the psychological outlook then followed by Physical performance, Life Enhancement, Preventive health, Social interreaction subscale respectively. The highest mean of barriers was the Time expenditure subscale then followed by the Exercise milieu, Physical exertion), Family discouragement subscale respectively. Applied interventions need to assist female university students to overcome their barrier to participate in physical activity.