[Awareness and participation in public physical activity programs among adults in the Northeast region of Brazil].

The scope of the study was to investigate the factors associated with awareness and participation of the adult population of the Northeast region of Brazil in public physical activity (PA) programs. It involved a cross-sectional study with data from the Brazilian National Health Survey (2019). The dependent variables were awareness and participation in public PA programs. The independent variables were household, sociodemographic, social support and health characteristics. Prevalence ratios were estimated using Poisson regression with robust variance. The prevalence of awareness was 24.3%, of which 9.7% participated in public PA programs. Higher per capita family income, visits from family health teams, female gender, age over 34, more schooling, paid work, participation in social mobilization groups, being overweight or obese and diagnosed with one or more chronic non-communicable diseases were positively associated with public PA programs. Having a paid job was negatively associated and participation in social mobilization groups was positively associated. Public PA programs need to consider dissemination strategies and the characteristics of the local context.