According to the World Health Organization’s non-communicable diseases country profile in 2018, NCDs were responsible for 41 million of the world's 57 million fatalities in 2016. The burden is disproportionately high in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), accounting for 78% of global NCD mortality. In a middle-income nation like Ghana, NCDs were responsible for 94,400 (43%) of all deaths in 2016. Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) were expected to account for about 80% of the global burden of illness in 2020, with 7 out of 10 fatalities happening in developing countries .

World Health Organization indicated that 31% of the world’s population does not engage in thirty minutes of moderately intensive physical activity at least five days a week. As a result, the WHO recognized physical activity among the global health priorities of the 21st century.

Physical activity is defined as any bodily movement produced by the skeletal muscles that require energy expenditure, including activities undertaken while working, playing, doing domestic chores, travelling, and engaging in recreational pursuits . For WHO, the popular ways to be active include walking, cycling, wheeling, active sports, active recreation, and play, and can be done at any level of skill and for enjoyment by everybody. They further stated that physical activity can result in general health benefits such as improved muscular and cardiorespiratory fitness, bone health, weight control, and a reduction of hypertension, stroke, and some forms of cancer.

Global estimates show that one in four adults and 81% of adolescents do not do enough physical activity. Further, as countries develop economically, levels of inactivity increase and can be as high as 70% due to changes in transport patterns, increased use of technology for work and recreation, cultural values, and increasing sedentary behaviour. Chronic illnesses constitute a significant contributor to disease burden in both developing and industrialized nations, according to the . Heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and respiratory illness caused 79% of fatalities, with 85% of the burden in low- and medium-income nations.

Regular physical activity is an important component of a healthy lifestyle that improves not only physical but also psychological health . Physical health benefits of regular physical activity include increased muscle and bone strength, decreased body fat, improved weight control, and aerobic fitness . Regular physical activity also enhances a sense of well-being, reduces the risk of developing depression and anxiety, and improves mood . Physical activity has been demonstrated to improve the health status of individuals with diabetes, hypertension, congestive heart failure, obesity, and depression . Adults between the ages of 18 and 64 must perform at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity activity each week to meet the global PA recommendations developed by the WHO .

Many factors have been enumerated to influence motivation and behaviour to participate in physical activities. These factors include demographic characteristics like age, gender, educational status, and socioeconomic standing . Workplace characteristics like working hours, job control, and job security have been shown to affect the willingness and frequency of engaging in sporting activities . The health status of an individual can also influence participation in sporting activities.

The Ghanaian public has been encouraged to increase their participation in physical activity for decades, however, the challenges are unresolved, especially among workers in the white-collar category in the public institutions. Despite the relevance of physical activity to employee well-being and organizational health care cost, it appears the staff of Volta River Authority (VRA) are physically inactive. In regard of ensuring the health and wellbeing of senior staff, VRA built a clubhouse that has some facilities and equipment such as tennis courts, volleyball court, basketball court, football field, squash court, swimming pool and a gym for physical activity/exercise purposes but could still not motivate and promote participation of physical activity among workers.

Senior staff of Volta River Authority (VRA) in Akuse enclave attribute their physical inactivity to their managerial duties performed that restrict them mainly to sitting longer hours in office and closing late. Moreover, most of these workers are in their middle adult life and are vulnerable to chronic diseases due to the ageing process and inactivity.

An anecdotal evidence and informal observation by the researcher from the annual employee’s health screening by the VRA health services identifies osteoporosis, arthritis, metabolic syndrome, changes in lipid profiles, diabetes, hypertension, accelerated weight gain, depression and insomnia among others as common diseases due to lack of physical activity and sedentary behaviour. stressed that physical inactivity can result in several chronic illnesses (for example, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, hypertension, obesity, depression, and osteoporosis) and premature death, but their studies were carried out in Canada. To ascertain the main reasons that contribute to physical inactivity among VRA senior staff members, the study seeks to assess the factors that influence participation in physical activity among senior staff of Volta River Authority (VRA) in Akuse. This study answered questions on factors that influence participation in physical activity, correlation between the factors that contribute to participation of physical activity, differences between gender on the factors that influence participation of physical activity, and differences among the ages of senior staff on the factors that influence participation of physical activity.

A study identified that factors significantly associated with physical inactivity included age, gender, marital status, working hours, and current behavioural stage of physical activity . He further concluded that physical inactivity is high among the adult community in the Negeri Sembilan district, Peninsular Malaysia, and was strongly associated with age, gender, marital status, working hours, and current behavioural stage of physical activity. He said it is important to identify individuals with physical inactivity and its associated factors early as this could severely affect the quality of life of the individuals. indicated that a decline in physical activity among those being active was perceived to potentially increase health problems and negatively impact their mobility and muscle strength. A lack of a sports fellow or social support was also mentioned as an impeding factor by those who could not rely on one. Other barriers include bad or challenging infrastructure (unsafe bike and footpaths), lacking resources (financial constraints), poor weather conditions, or time shortage. In contrast, joyful and diverse activities (joy and variety) may serve as facilitators. found out that motivation, facilities and equipment, religion, misconceptions, academic load, lack of sports skills, and social role were significant major factors that determined and influenced female teacher-trainees’ participation in physical activities and sports in the college of education in the Ashanti Region, Ghana. The study concluded that female teacher-trainees, on average, had a negative attitude towards participation in physical activities and sports. This leads to the thought that female teacher trainees are dissatisfied by the subject taught in the colleges. disclosed that, physical activity participation decreased in older females. In addition, fun of physical exertion was a primary attraction to physical activity for males more than females. Body image as an expected outcome of participating in PA contributed most to gender differences. It was recommended that there should be a need to determine why physical activity drops off as females get older. Findings underscore the importance of structuring activities differently to sustain interest in male and female adolescents and highlight motives of having a healthy body image and making PA fun to enhance participation. indicated that Physical activity was lowest among African Americans and American Indians/Alaskan Natives. A much higher proportion of women were classified as being physically active with occupational activity rather than more traditional assessments of leisure activity were used to determine level of physical activity. Women living in rural regions were more likely than urban inhabitants to be completely inactive during leisure time. They concluded on a note that minority women are among the least active subgroups in American society, although not all groups are less active than White women when all domains of physical activity are taken into account.

The descriptive cross-sectional survey design was used as a data collection technique to generalize the study results to the population without manipulation and interference. Census sampling technique selected 222 senior staff as participants from the Volta River Authority. The study employed a questionnaire as a data collection instrument with validity and reliability ensured to solicit candid opinions from participants. SPSS version 21 was used to analyze the data with descriptive statistics of frequencies and percentages calculated. Inferential statistics of Pearson’s “R” Correlation, Independent sample T-test, and One-way ANOVA were used to assess the relationship and differences between the variables of the study at alpha levels p<0.05.

Source: Field data (2023).

The result from Table 1 indicated 44 (19.8%) represented 31 – 35 years of age, 39 (17.6%) represented 36 – 40 years of age, 43 (19.4%) represented 41 – 45 years of age, 46 (20.7%) represented 46 – 50 years of age, 31(14.0%) represented 51 – 55 years of age, and 19 (8.6%) represented 56 – 60 years of age.

Source: Field data (2023).

The data from Table 2 showed that out of the total, 148 (66.7%) were men and 74 (33.3%) were women.

Source: Field data (2023).

From Table 3, the outcome of the descriptive statistics showed that equipment and facilities were considered by VRA staff as the highly influential factor to physical activity participation with a mean rank of 16.16 than motivation, biological factors, nature of work and attitude with their mean ranks of 15.38, 14.64, 13.18 and 12.92 respectively. This implied that participants’ responses on equipment and facilities were between strongly agree and agree as compared to the responses of strongly disagree and disagree on the remaining factors.

Source: Field data (2023).

The analysis from Table 4 showed a highly statistically significant correlation between attitude and biological factors, attitude and nature of work, biological factors and equipment and facilities, biological factors and motivation, biological factors and nature of work, equipment and facilities and motivation, and motivation and nature of work with p values equal to.00 (p =00) and less than.05 (p <.05) respectively. The data indicated between no correlation of r =0 to a high correlation of r =.7, respectively yielding between 0% to 49% influencing percentages to the participation of physical activity among VRA staff.

Source: Field data (2023).

From Table 5, men and women did not differ in opinions on all the remaining factors with p values of more than.05 (p >.05) apart from attitude and nature of work. The analysis indicated a statistically significant difference between males and females on attitude, t (220) =.93, p <.05, and nature of work, t (220) = 1.49, p <.05. The data indicate that Females (M=13.66, SD=2.12), (M= 13.82, SD= 2.54) perceived attitude and nature of work to influence participation in physical activity more than Males (M=12.55, SD=2.18), (M= 12.86, SD= 2.94). No statistically significant difference was found in any of the other factors of physical activity participation.

Source: Field data (2023).

The results from Table 6 indicated a statistically significant difference between the ages of VRA workers on only nature of work, F (5, 216) =2.52, p <.05. There were no statistically significant differences between the ages of VRA workers on the remaining factors (Attitude, Biological factors, Equipment, and facilities and Motivation) with a p-value of more than .05 (p >.05). This means that participants of different ages only differ in opinions on the nature of work.

Factors influencing physical activity participation among people with varied age groups have been explained and classified differently by different studies. Research carried out on similar and different participants showed different contributive factors to physical activity participation. The outcome of this study showed that equipment and facilities were considered by VRA staff as the highly influential factor to physical activity participation with a mean rank of 16.16, rather than motivation, biological factors, nature of work, and attitude with their mean ranks of 15.38, 14.64, 13.18, and 12.92, respectively. This implied that participants’ responses on equipment and facilities were between strongly agree and agree as compared to the responses of strongly disagree and disagree on the remaining factors. This means that VRA workers were not aware of the equipment and facilities available, the nature, means of accessibility, and the structures put in place for use. The outcome of this study confirms the findings of a study by about the relationship between sports facility accessibility and physical activity participation among Korean adults. They found out that participants with easy access to sports facilities participated in physical activity more often than those without easy access. Also, expressed the same opinion that the presence and absence of facilities and equipment, their accessibility, quality, pricing, structure, and policy, have a substantial influence on recreational participation. A similar study by opposed the findings of this study. His results indicated that, preferring to do other things with their time, exercise is too hard, unsafe environment, and the lack of facilities and time to exercise were cited as major factors that deterred the students from participating in physical activity. Also, a study by in Pelotas, Brazil, found that lack of time, dislike of exercising, feeling too tired, lack of companion, and lack of money were associated with physical inactivity, which was contrary to the outcome of this study. Another study by also opposed the findings of this study. Their results identified the nature of work as the most influential factor for not participating in physical activity, which opposed the outcome of this study. More so, on barriers and enablers of physical activity participation among female students in Emirati University came out contrary to the findings of this study. They identified attitude, access to equipment and facilities, and nature of work as the main barriers to physical activity participation. , with their research, also opposed the findings of this study. They discovered that working hours, job pressure, and overtime exhibited adverse relationships with Leisure-Time Physical Activity (LTPA). , about their study with the perceived barriers to PA participation in university students also opposed the results of this study. In their finding, lack of time due to busy lesson schedules, parents giving priority over physical exercise, lack of time due to responsibilities at home and social environment were mostly cited as factors to PA participation barriers. They stated emphatically in their conclusion about the need for further research to be carried out with larger sample groups to develop the national standardized instrument. Although all the remaining factors were identified as contributive factors to physical activity participation, equipment and facilities were the highly influential factor to participation in physical activity among senior staff of Volta River Authority in Akuse.

Physical activity participation is influenced by several factors, and most of these demonstrate relationships between them in diverse ways. Some of these factors impact and influence each other concerning physical activity participation. On the correlation between the factors contributing to physical activity participation, the results showed a highly statistically significant correlation between attitude and biological factors, attitude and nature of work, biological factors and equipment and facilities, biological factors and motivation, biological factors and nature of work, equipment and facilities and motivation, and motivation and nature of work with p values equal to .00 (p =00) and less than .05 (p <.05) respectively. The data indicated no correlation of r =0 to a high correlation of r =.7, respectively yielding between 0% to 49% influencing percentages to the participation of physical activity among VRA staff.

Normally, individuals with certain biological traits influence their attitudes toward physical activity participation. Young individuals are naturally motivated and driven to participate in regular physical activity as they normally focus on their body formation and posture as compared to older ones. Also, men regularly demonstrate great strength and energy in most situations and, for that reason, really enjoy manipulating and using training equipment and facilities to train and exercise. Also, the nature of work of certain individuals directly affects their attitudes towards physical activity participation. The reporting and closing time for various workers expose them to develop either negative or positive attitudes towards physical activity. Individuals who normally close early from work can make some time to train and exercise as compared to others who are occupied from morning to evening with work. Furthermore, the equipment and facilities available directly influence the motivation of individuals to participate in physical activity. Usually, individuals are motivated and driven by just the sight of ultra-modern training equipment and facilities to participate in different kinds of physical activities. These equipment and facilities enable individuals to engage in a variety of physical activities with the aid of a qualified instructor. In addition, the nature of work also plays a major role in motivating individuals to participate in physical activity. Individuals who engage in the vigorous nature of work, such as carrying loads, might not be motivated to engage in physical activity again since their work might be physically and energy demanding in nature as compared to that of office work of others. As such, individuals with different natures of work are differently motivated and driven to participate in physical activity. The findings of this study confirm the results of , who identified a significant correlation between biological factors, the nature of work, and attitude toward physical activity participation. Also, came out with a relationship between motivation and equipment and facilities on participation in physical activity.

The also identified a significant correlation between biological factors and equipment and facilities on physical activity participation in their various studies. Again, a study conducted by on perceived barriers and facilitators to PA participation among children with disability supported the findings of this study. Their results indicate a correlation between attitude and biological factors on physical activity participation. In conclusion, attitude, biological factors, nature of work, motivation, equipment, and facilities exhibited relationships among them concerning physical activity participation.

It was realized in the study that all the factors that contribute to physical activity participation play key roles among the senior staff of VRA workers in Akuse. The findings of the study concerning gender difference on the factors that influence physical activity participation were clearly explained. The analysis showed that men and women did not differ in opinions on all the remaining factors with p values of more than .05 (p >.05) and therefore shared a common opinion on biological factors, motivation, equipment, and facility as factors that influence physical activity participation apart from attitude and nature of work. The analysis indicated a statistically significant difference between males and females on attitude, t (220) =.93, p <.05, and nature of work, t (220) = 1.49, p <.05. The data revealed that Females (M=13.66, SD=2.12), (M= 13.82, SD= 2.54) perceived attitude and nature of work to influence participation in physical activity more than Males (M=12.55, SD=2.18), (M= 12.86, SD= 2.94). In effect, no statistically significant difference was found in any of the other factors of physical activity participation. Different opinions by males and females were shared on only attitude and nature of work simply because of the differences in perceptions about exercise being too difficult, time spent doing house chores (Family responsibility), fear of sustaining injuries, fitness levels, workload at office/work, time/hours spent attending to office duties, lack of institutional policy. It is believed that females mostly perceived exercise to be difficult as compared to men due to their genetic makeups considering their fitness level and also do not have enough time to exercise due to their engagement in house chores. Males naturally have stronger bodies and have more energy than females and, therefore, can withstand any form of physical activity, unlike females. They also offer a little support at home, which gives them enough time to engage in exercise. The findings of this study oppose the results by , who identified a significant difference in opinions in gender on factors contributing to physical activity participation (biological factors, equipment and facilities, nature of work, attitude) in a group of Ghanaian women. Results indicated that women viewed activities of daily living like housework as physical activity, rarely utilized organized fitness facilities, and understood rigorous physical activity as professional male athleticism. The majority (75.9%) reported exercising sometimes or often, also can’t find the time, work/family obligations, and don't have a facility as top barriers for not engaging in physical activity. In the same vein, also identified a significant difference between gender on biological factors and motivation to physical activity participation. Their study disclosed that physical activity participation decreases in older females as compared to males. According to them, body image is an expected outcome of physical activity participation, which mostly contributes to gender difference. They conclude on the importance of structuring activities differently to sustain interest in male and female adolescents and highlight motives of having a healthy body image and making physical activity fun to enhance participation. also identified a significant difference between gender on attitude and biological factors to physical activity participation. They observed that due to cultural variables such as females' duties being seen to be in the kitchen, girls are less likely than boys to be exposed to structured physical activity programmes in rural communities in South Africa. In another vein, opposed the findings of this study with their research on the environmental and policy determinants of physical activity in the United States. The outcome of their study revealed that men perceived the availability of the areas for physical activity (equipment and facilities) to influence physical activity participation than women. In conclusion, they suggested an array of environmental and policy determinants to be associated with physical activity and should be taken into account in the design of intervention. In conclusion, females perceived attitude and nature of work to influence participation in physical activity more than males due to work/family obligations, perception about exercise, and level of energy.

Age difference has an impact on physical activity participation among people. The ages of VRA staff indicated a significant difference in the factors that influence participation in physical activity. The findings of this study indicated a statistically significant difference among the ages of VRA workers on only nature of work, F (5, 216) = 2.52, p <.05. There was no statistically significant difference among the ages of VRA workers on the remaining factors (Attitude, Biological factors, Equipment and facilities and Motivation) with a p-value of more than .05 (p >.05).

This means that participants of different ages only differ in opinions on the nature of work. It is assumed that young participants have more energy as compared to older participants. This enables them to combine office duties and participation in physical activity. They also see exercise as a panacea to keeping the body in shape and good form for aesthetic values. The older staff may also consider other health implications as a barrier to their opinions. Another instance is where the older participants believe that exercise is an activity for the young. Again, the younger participants consider the time for exercise as a period for socialization and reuniting with friends. The findings of this study opposed that on multiple influences to participating in physical activity in old age. Results indicate a significant difference in opinions in ages on attitude, equipment and facility, and motivation. Another study conducted by was based on the beliefs and motivations regarding physical activity among older adults in Germany. The outcome showed a significant difference in opinions in ages on biological factors, attitude, equipment and facilities, and motivation to physical activity participation, which opposed the findings of this study. Another study by on exercise participation among indigenous Australian adults also opposed the outcome of this study. Their result outlined a significant difference in the ages of the participants on attitude, equipment and facilities, and biological factors to physical activity participation. Even though the rest of the factors shared no significant difference in opinions in their ages, nature of work as the only factor to PA participation outlined a strong significant difference in opinion among the ages of the staff.

(1). Equipment and Facilities were Considered as Highly Influential Factors to Physical Activity Participation by VRA Senior Staff

(2). The Factors Contributing to Physical Activity Influenced and Related to Each Other to Participation Among VRA Senior Staff

(3). Most Females Perceived Attitude and Nature of Work to Influence the Utilization of the Facilities for Physical Activity Compared to the Males

(4). Age Differences Influence the Nature of Work of VRA Senior Staff Workers

(1). VRA Management Should Make Sure the Available Facilities are Modernized and Constantly Maintained to Standard to Influence Staff Participation in Physical Activity

(2). VRA Health Unit should be Encouraged to Develop Programs that Would Educate Staff on the Importance of Physical Activity/Exercise and the Associated Health Benefits that will Motivate all Workers, Particularly the Females and the Older Staff

(3). Also, it is Recommended that Management Institute a Policy by Setting Aside a Day of the Week for all Senior Staff to Close an Hour Earlier from Work, Converge at the Clubhouse, and Engage in Physical Activities

(4). Furthermore, Workloads at the Office for Older Staff Should Be Considered to Ease Stress and Make some time for Physical Activities after Work

Tetteh Nelson: Project administration, Resources, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Emmanuel Osei Sarpong: Supervision, Validation

Michael Sedegah Mawuli: Formal Analysis, Methodology

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.