Perception of public places for physical activity among beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of health plans: results of the National Health Survey 2019

This study aimed to evaluate the perception of public places for the practice of physical activity and compare these differences according to health plan beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries. We used data from the 2019 National Health Interview Survey. The outcome was assessed through the following question, “Near your home, is there a public place (square, park, enclosed street, beach) to walk, exercise or play sport?”. Descriptive analyses were performed using frequency and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI). The analyses were performed by comparing beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of health plans and evaluating the results according to sociodemographic variables. The results include data from 20,230 beneficiaries (52.6% women) and 68,301 non-beneficiaries (54.6% women) of health plans, with most of the sample aged between 18 and 39. Overall, 52.1% of non beneficiaries (95%CI: 51.0 - 53.2) and 67.4% of beneficiaries (95%CI: 65.8 - 68.9) reported having a place near their home for physical activity. We found a dose effect trend regarding education level and places close to the residence to the practice of physical activity - the higher the level of education, the higher the perception of individuals who reported having adequate places for physical activity. Our findings showed that beneficiaries of health plans have more access to places near their homes to practice physical activity, as well as the most educated.