Association Between Categories of Daily Sitting Time and Reporting Lack of Facilities as a Barrier to Physical Activity among Staff of Colleges of Education in Borno State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the association between categories of daily sitting time (<4 hours, 4–8 hours, and >8 hours) and reporting lack of facilities as a barrier to physical activity among staff of Colleges of Education in Borno State, Nigeria. A correlational research design was employed, involving 285 staff members recruited from two government-owned Colleges of Education in Borno State: College of Education, Waka-Biu (n=130, 44.1%) and Umar Ibn Ibrahim El-Kanemi College of Education, Science and Technology, Bama (n=165, 55.9%) during the 2022/2023 academic session. Participants were selected through multi-stage sampling procedures including purposive sampling for institution selection, simple random sampling for departmental selection, and accidental sampling for respondent recruitment. Data were collected using a researcher-developed, validated questionnaire titled "Self-Reported Daily Sitting Time and Perceived Barriers to Physical Activity among Staff of Tertiary Institutions," which demonstrated satisfactory reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.81) following pilot testing. The questionnaire comprised two sections: Section A elicited demographic information including age, gender, marital status, educational qualification, staff category, designation, length of service, working hours, income, residence, transportation mode, and medical conditions; Section B assessed self-reported daily sitting time categories and perceived barriers to physical activity using a 5-point Likert scale. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency counts, percentages, means, and standard deviations) for demographic characteristics and chi-square analysis to test the association between daily sitting time categories and reporting lack of facilities as a barrier at 0.05 level of significance. Chi-square analysis revealed a statistically significant association between daily sitting time categories and reporting lack of facilities as a barrier (χ² = 6.254, df = 2, p = 0.044), leading to rejection of the null hypothesis at the 0.05 significance level. This finding indicates that staff members with prolonged daily sitting time, particularly those sitting for more than 8 hours, were disproportionately more likely to perceive lack of facilities as a significant barrier to physical activity participation compared to their counterparts with shorter sitting durations. This study provides empirical evidence of a statistically significant association between daily sitting time and reporting lack of facilities as a barrier to physical activity among staff of Colleges of Education in Borno State, Nigeria. Based on these significant findings it was recommended thatCollege of Education administrators, institutional management boards, and relevant government agencies should prioritize the development, enhancement, and maintenance of comprehensive physical activity infrastructure and recreational facilities as foundational components of workplace health promotion programmes, including establishing on-campus fitness centres, creating designated walking paths, providing outdoor exercise equipment, developing multi-purpose sports facilities, and ensuring accessibility, maintenance, and convenient operating hours

Keywords: Daily sitting time, sedentary behaviour, lack of facilities, physical activity barriers, workplace health promotion, College of Education staff.