Analysis of the knowledge that patients who are taking part in a physical activity program have about their pathology, nutrition and lifestyle

Abstract

Appropriate nutrition and regular physical exercise are important tools for the prevention and treatment of many diseases. The objective of the present study was to analyze the awareness of people who participated in a physical exercise program regarding their disease and the benefits of nutrition and physical activity. We analyzed the questionnaires of 683 people who participated in a physical exercise program that was designed to improve 4 pathologies. Their average age was 58.3 ± 9.7 years, and 76.2% of participants were women. Different questionnaires were used to assess the participants’ knowledge about their own pathology, and the effect of nutrition and physical exercises on them, and to evaluate the practical implementation of that knowledge. Nutrition was considered to be not important for 12% of participants. For 91%, their knowledge about food was good and 83.3% admitted having good nutrition. However, 1.8% of participants didn’t have breakfast (3.4% were young people). In addition, 50.5% had the habit of eating snacks, 36.4% of people with obesity didn´t control their body weight and 72.9% of people with high blood pressure added salt to their food. Little agreement was observed between knowledge about nutrition and other factors that are associated with different pathologies and the implementation of them in everyday factor. For this reason it is important to continue to improve programs dealing with education in nutrition, physical exercise and health, basically in people with disease.