Disability Type and Constraints to Leisure-Time Physical Activity in Turkiye

Background: Little is known about the effect of disability type on perceived physical activity (PA) constraints. Investigating the leisure-time PA constraint differences across disability groups would increase the possibility of PA participation, and reverse the physical inactivity trend for disabled populations. Objective: The purpose was to examine perceived PA constraint differences between individuals with 3 different disability types, which are visual, hearing, and physical disabilities. Methods: The study sample comprised 305 individuals with a visual disability, 203 individuals with a physical disability, and 144 individuals with hearing loss. Leisure Time PA Constraints Scale-Disabled Individuals Form, consisting of 32 items and 8 subscales, was used as for data collection. Data were analyzed with a 3 x 2 two-way multivariate analysis of variance. Results: Findings indicated a significant main effect of the disability group (Pillai V = 0.025; F-16,F-639 = 10.132, P <.001, eta(2) =.112), gender (Pillai V = 0.250; F-8,F-639 = 2.025, P <.05, eta(2)=.025), and interaction between the disability group and gender (Pillai V = 0.069; F-161,F-280 = 2.847, P <.001, eta(2) =.034). The follow-up analyses of variance indicated significant differences in facility quality, social environment, family, willpower, time, and ability perception scores between disability groups, P < .05. Conclusions: People with different disabilities have different perceived leisure-time PA barriers with respect to environmental, social, and psychological factors; generally, disabled females perceived more barriers to leisure-time PA. Policies and intervention protocols for disabled individuals should directly address the disability-specific need of individuals to increase leisure-time PA participation.