Skip to main content
Physiatry '25 Main banner
Final Program


Final Program

305 - Barriers and Strategies to Physical Inactivity in the Filipino American Community

Thursday, February 27, 2025
5:00 PM - 6:30 PM MST
Objectives: Physical activity is important in helping prevent chronic lifestyle disease, especially with Filipino Americans having higher rates of obesity, second highest Type 2 diabetes prevalence, and high rates of uncontrolled hypertension amongst Asian Americans. Because Filipino Americans are often grouped with other Asian ethnicities, there is a lack of disaggregated data leading to limited literature addressing physical activity amongst Filipino Americans. The objective of this study is to determine the barriers to physical inactivity in the Filipino American community to address the above comorbidities.

Design: A plan-do-study-act design was utilized for this study. We first planned to identify barriers and current interventions addressing physical inactivity on Filipino Americans through a literature review. The literature review focused on studies that had disaggregated data for Filipino Americans. Based on our findings, we created fitness and educational content to address these barriers.

Results: Our literature review revealed limited research on barriers to physical inactivity in Filipino Americans. Findings showed that Filipino Americans face psychosocial barriers such as lack of knowledge, social support, motivation, and self-efficacy. Social support and physical activity enjoyment are shown to improve independent engagement in physical activity. Culturally tailoring interventions among Filipino Americans leads to increased adherence. Current studies indicate Filipino Americans often fall short of recommended physical activity. In response, we created open-access exercise content to promote knowledge, encourage activity, and foster community engagement.

Conclusions: Barriers to physical activity for the Filipino American population include various psychosocial factors. There is limited research or culturally appropriate interventions that address physical inactivity regarding Filipino Americans. The above findings resulted in the planning of a platform for physical activity, fitness content, and educational activities targeting the Filipino American community. Future directions are to measure community engagement, lifestyle modifications, and improvements in chronic conditions, including diabetes and hypertension.