Physical Activity, Public Policy, Health Promotion, Sociability and Leisure: A Study on Gymnastics Groups in a Brazilian City Hall

Background: The present study analyzed a gymnastics program offered by the Department of Sports and Leisure at a Brazilian city hall, representing an example of an effective and consolidated public policy.

Main objective: The objective of this study was to understand the reasons for enrollment/joining (adhesion) and permanence (adherence) among female students in gymnastics groups in order to understand why this public policy has been taking place uninterruptedly for over thirty years and to characterize the quality of life of female gymnastics students.

Methods: This is a case study that used mixed methods. As a quantitative method, the Portuguese version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life-Abbreviated Version (WHOQOL-bref) questionnaire was used. As a qualitative method, the focus group technique was used. Thus, 239 women aged between thirty-five and seventy-four years old, who were students of the gymnastics program, participated in this research by answering the WHOQOL-bref questionnaire. Two classes were selected using the socioeconomic criterion of social classes in inverse situations to carry out one focus group session; then, twenty students belonging to the two classes were randomly selected.

Results: It was verified that the public policy studied has led to an improvement in the quality of life of the students, with the benefits extending beyond physical health, and that in both groups adhesion occurred mainly due to the indication of students who already practiced, or due to medical indications. It was also found that, in both groups, the main reason for long-term adherence was the understanding of the gymnastics class as a space for sociability and a moment of leisure.

Conclusion: Physical activity is an important health promotion strategy. In addition to its biological benefits, which are necessary for the prevention of chronic non-communicable diseases, it also improves health and quality of life through social and psychological benefits, characterizing it as an effective health care strategy from a biopsychosocial perspective.