Physical Activity Level, Barriers, and Facilitators for Exercise Engagement for Chronic Community-Dwelling Stroke Survivors in Low-Income Settings: A Cross-Sectional Study in Benin

After a stroke incident, physical inactivity is common. People with stroke may perceive several barriers to performing physical activity (PA). This study aimed to document the PA level and understand the barriers and facilitators to engaging in PA for community-dwelling stroke survivors in Benin, a lower middle-income country. A cross-sectional study was conducted in three hospitals in Benin. Levels of PA were recorded by means of the Benin version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire long form (IPAQ-LF-Benin), which is validated for stroke survivors in Benin. The perceived exercise facilitators and barriers were assessed by the Stroke Exercise Preference Inventory-13 (SEPI-13). A descriptive analysis and associations were performed with a Confidence Interval of 95% and <0.05 level of significance. A total of 87 participants (52 men, mean age of 53 ± 10 years, mean time after a stroke of 11 (IQR: 15) months and an average of 264.5 ± 178.9 m as distance on the 6 min walking test (6MWT) were included. Overall, stroke survivors in Benin reached a total PA of 985.5 (IQR: 2520) metabolic equivalent (METs)-minutes per week and were least active at work, domestic, and leisure domains with 0 MET-minutes per week. The overview of PA level showed that 52.9% of participants performed low PA intensity. However, 41.4% performed moderate PA or walking per day for at least five days per week. Important perceived barriers were lack of information (45.3%), hard-to-start exercise (39.5%), and travelling to places to exercise (29.9%). The preference for exercise was with family or friends, outdoors, for relaxation or enjoyment (90.2%), and receiving feedback (78.3%). Several socio-demographic, clinical, and community factors were significantly associated with moderate or intense PA (p < 0.05) in stroke survivors in this study. Our findings show that the PA level among chronic stroke survivors in Benin is overall too low relative to their walking capacity. Cultural factors in terms of the overprotection of the patients by their entourage and/or the low health literacy of populations to understand the effect of PA on their health may play a role. There is a need for new approaches that consider the individual barriers and facilitators to exercise.