Background: Women in the menopausal transition experience body changes directly related to hormonal variation. Decrease in estrogen level may start a rapid decline in muscle strength, bone mineral density, aerobic fitness and increased body weight. All these in turn are associated with development of chronic conditions such as hypertension, heart disease, diabetes and others. Psychosocial factors have been documented as being capable of influencing physical activity in chronic conditions.

Objective: This study investigated influence of psychosocial factors such as self-efficacy, family support and perceived barriers to exercise on physical activity level of menopausal women with chronic conditions in Nigeria.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey in which menopausal women with hypertension, diabetes and osteoarthritis were recruited from secondary and tertiary health centres in Ibadan and Ijebu-Ode in Oyo and Ogun States of Nigeria respectively. Physical activity was assessed with the international physical activity questionnaire (IPAQ), while exercise self-efficacy scale and family version of the social support questionnaire as well as barrier scale of the exercise benefit and barrier scale were used to assess psychosocial variables and perceived barriers to exercise respectively. Informed consent was obtained from all participants. Data was analysed using Chi-square and logistic regression analysis. Probability level was set at 0.05.

Results: Three hundred and five women, predominantly postmenopausal 249(83.8%) participated in the study and hypertension 117 (38.4%) was the most prevalent chronic condition. Majority of the menopausal women 212 (69.5%) reported low physical activity level with 138 (45.2%) reporting high barriers to exercise. Significant direct association between physical activity level and exercise self-efficacy (P<0.05) was reported while negative significant association was reported between physical activity level and perceived barriers (p<0.05). No significant association was observed between physical activity and family support.

Conclusion: Self-efficacy and perceived barriers to exercise significantly influenced physical activity level and exercise of menopausal women in this study, while family support played no prominent role.

Implications for practice: Particular considerations should be placed on psychosocial factors such as self-efficacy and perceived barriers when designing interventions to improve physical activity levels of menopausal women in Nigeria.