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Table 3 Motives and barriers to exercise by the sedentary status. Values are N [%]. Variables with italics were included in PCA

From: Profiles of sedentary and non-sedentary young men – a population-based MOPO study

Characteristic

All (n = 616)

Sedentary, sitting time ≥ 5 h

Non-sedentary, sitting time ≤ 2 h

p*

(n = 179)

(n = 172)

Lack of other personal factors; restricting

    

  Lack of interest

406 (66.7)

144 (80.9)

86 (50.0)

<0.001

  Lack of sports skills

221 (36.7)

73 (42.0)

48 (27.9)

0.006

  Lack of appropriate sports type

235 (38.8)

85 (48.0)

52 (30.6)

0.001

  Lack of knowledge

199 (32.9)

79 (44.6)

37 (21.6)

<0.001

  Laziness

493 (81.2)

162 (91.0)

116 (67.8)

<0.001

Appearance; motivating

    

  Enhancing exterior

530 (87.5)

151 (85.8)

155 (91.2)

0.118

  Enhancing sexual attraction

487 (81.7)

130 (76.0)

143 (86.7)

0.012

  Losing weight

357 (58.5)

106 (59.9)

102 (59.6)

0.964

Health promotion; motivating

    

  Enhancing health

590 (96.9)

168 (94.9)

168 (98.2)

0.140

  Enhancing mood

535 (88.3)

149 (84.2)

154 (91.7)

0.034

  Enhancing energy

555 (91.3)

158 (89.3)

160 (94.1)

0.103

  Enjoying the good feeling

550 (90.8)

152 (86.4)

161 (94.2)

0.015

  Relieving stress

510 (84.2)

138 (78.0)

154 (91.1)

0.001

Fitness improvement; motivating

    

  Competing

357 (59.0)

80 (44.9)

116 (68.2)

<0.001

  Enhancing muscle mass

567 (93.0)

153 (86.4)

164 (95.9)

0.002

  Enhancing physical fitness

566 (93.6)

160 (89.4)

159 (94.1)

0.113

Physical education motivated to exercise

115 (19.0)

22 (12.6)

43 (25.3)

0.003

  1. *p-values (sedentary vs. non-sedentary groups) from independent samples t-test or crosstabs chi-squared tests. Fisher’s Exact Test was used, if n ≤ 5. Numbers do not match due to missing values