Barriers to Physical Activity for the Adult Transgender Population

Exercise has many physical and mental health benefits, but there are several common barriers to physical activity that the general population faces. Furthermore, it has been shown that transgender individuals do not participate in physical activity as much as nontransgender individuals do. This suggests that the transgender population may face additional or unique barriers to physical activity. The purpose of this study was to further examine and identify these barriers for adult transgender individuals regardless of whether they decided to, were in the process of, or completed medical transition. Five categories of physical activity barriers were analyzed within a survey: time, motivation, accessibility, emotions, and social factors. This online physical activity questionnaire was distributed to transgender adults 18 years or older over a course of two months. Twelve responses were received but only nine of those met the inclusion criteria and were used in the study (n=9). Three questions were asked for each barrier category and were formatted as a Likert scale. Each question and barrier category was given a score based on if the responses indicated that particular instance as a barrier to physical activity or not. The results of the survey responses showed that social factors was the highest reported barrier to physical activity for transgender adults. Emotions was the second highest reported barrier, while accessibility was the lowest reported barrier. The responses from this study indicate that transgender adults do experience different or additional barriers to physical activity when compared to the general population.