Insufficient free-time physical activity and occupational factors in Brazilian public school teachers

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate if perceived occupational factors are associated with insufficient freetimephysical activity in Brazilian public school teachers.METHODS: The relationship between insufficient physical activity (< 150 minutes/week) andvariables related to work was analyzed in 978 elementary and high school teachers calculatingthe prevalence ratio (PR) and 95% confidence interval (95%CI) in Poisson regression models,adjusted for sociodemographic and health variables.RESULTS: The prevalence of insufficient physical activity was 71.9%, and this condition wasassociated independently with the perception of bad or regular balance between personaland professional life (PR = 1.09; 95%CI 1.01–1.18), perception that standing time affects thework (PR = 1.16; 95%CI 1.01–1.34), low or very low perception of current ability for the physicalrequirements of work (PR = 1.21; 95%CI 1.08–1.35), and temporary employment contract(PR = 1.13; 95%CI 1.03–1.25). The teaching of physical education was associated with lowerprevalence of insufficient physical activity (PR = 0.78; 95%CI 0.64–0.95).CONCLUSIONS: The perception of adverse working conditions is associated with increasedprevalence of insufficient physical activity in teachers and should be considered for the promotionof physical activity in this population