Background and Purpose: Regular physical activity is an important factor in the promotion of health and quality of life among individuals with asthma. There is a dearth of information on the relationship between knowledge benefit of physical activity and physical activity level among individuals with asthma in Kano State. This study determined the socio-demographic relationship between the knowledge of benefit of physical activity and physical activity level among individuals with asthma in Kano State.

Relevance: The level of knowledge of benefit of physical activity in this population will contribute to their overall management as exercise and physical activity is shown to be beneficial among individuals, however, many of them fear engaging in physical activity.

Participants/Subjects: Seventy four (74) participants were recruited consecutively from Murtala Mohammed Specialist Hospitals in Kano State.

Methodology: The study is a cross sectional study. International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ)-short Form was used to collect information on self-reported physical activity in the last 7 days and Knowledge Questionnaire was used to determine the level of knowledge of benefit of physical activity respectively. The questionnaires were retrieved same day after filling with a response rate of 100%. Descriptive statistics was used to describe the data and Spearman Rank Correlation test were used to analyze the data at alpha level of 0.05.

Results:. The majority of the participants were males 43 (58.1%). About 41 (55.4%) were in the age group of 18-35years, Most of them 32 (43.2%) were married. Knowledge assessment showed that 56(75.7%) of them had low knowledge of benefit of physical activity while only 18 (23.3%) of them had high knowledge. 39(52.7%) had low physical activity level, 15(20.3%) of the subjects reported a moderate level of physical activity and the remaining 20(27.0%) had high levels of physical activity. A positive relationship existed between overall knowledge of benefit of physical activity and physical activity level among the participants. Negative relationship was observed between knowledge of benefit of physical activity and all socio-demographic studied (age, gender, marital status, tribe, education and occupation). A positive correlation existed between physical activity level and socio demographic variables (age, gender, marital status and tribe) except that a negative correlation was observed only between physical activity level with education and occupation.

Conclusion: Knowledge of benefit of physical activity correlates positively with physical activity level among individuals with asthma in Kano State. Study population had low physical activity and low knowledge of benefit of physical activity.

Implications: Socio demographic variables have an important impact on both physical activity and knowledge of benefit of physical activity, they should be considered in rehabilitation of individuals with asthma.

Keywords: Asthma, Physical activity, Knowledge of physical activity benefit, Socio-demographics

Funding Source Acknowledgement: Self funded.

Ethics approval: Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (Ref:MH/off/797/T.I./123),