Relationship between Knowledge and Practice of Physical Activity and Development of Chronic Diseases among Adults in Port Harcourt, Rivers State

Background: Non-communicable disease (NCD) is a disease that is not transmissible directly from one person to another. The aim study is to assess the relationship between knowledge and practice of physical activity and development of chronic diseases among adults in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Materials and Methods: The study was conducted among residents in Port Harcourt metropolis, Rivers State. A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used for this study. A multi-stage sampling method was used to recruit 333 participants into the study. The study included adults who were 45yrs and above at time of the data collection, and who must have lived in Port Harcourt for at least 1 year. All adults who were critically ill at the time of this study were excluded. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect responses from the participants. Information collected were entered into the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 21 software as numeric codes and analyzed. Ethical clearance for the study was gotten from the Ethics Committee of Rivers State University and informed consent was obtained from all participants.

Result: This study found that majority of the participants, (64.9%) had good knowledge of physical activity while (35.1%) had poor knowledge physical activity. About (25.2%) of the participants engage in physical activity, while (53.6%) of them regularly do physical activity. The result showed that a statistically significant association was observed between tobacco consumption at (p=0.0001), alcohol consumption at (p=0.0001) and chronic diseases. Also a statistically significant relationship between knowledge of physical activity and chronic disease.

Conclusion: This study concludes that there is a significant relationship between lack of exercise and development of chronic diseases. Also, socio-demographic characteristics and social lifestyle of the respondents have a great influence on physical activity, development and progression of chronic diseases among adults. The study recommends that health workers should organize regular health education and promotion on physical activity among adults in Port Harcourt and other parts of the country.