Barriers and Facilitators for Regular Physical Exercise among Adult Females: Narrative Review 2020

Females have a higher burden of physical inactivity compared to males. Despite the volumes of qualitative studies that investigate the facilitators and barriers for physical exercise among adults, there are few reviews on the subject. This review aims to investigate the facilitators and barriers to regular physical exercise among adult females based on existing qualitative studies. The available data, which are mostly qualitative in design, could categorize all barriers and facilitators into three themes. They are physical body related factors, psychosocial and physical exercise environmental factors. Physical body related factors include this theme is more related to determinants of gender & age, and health status of individual female. Psychosocial theme is related to social determinants of health which involve interpersonal factors, financial income & employment, educational level, and family & social support. Physical exercise environmental factors include both the workplace surroundings and accessibility to regular physical exercise facility.