Examining the relationships between environmental barriers and leisure in community

To characterize environmental barriers to leisure participation among individuals living with stroke; examine relationships between environmental barriers and leisure interest and satisfaction; and investigate participant factors associated with the perception of environmental barriers. Survey. Community. Convenience sample of 51 community-dwelling adults less than six months post stroke. Not applicable. Craig Hospital Inventory of Environmental Factors-Short Form. Physical and structural environmental barriers were reported as the most frequent and large barrier to leisure participation (n？=？26 (51%) rated as “monthly or more,” n？=？12 (24%) rated as “big problem”). While attitude and support and policy barriers were not as commonly encountered, participants labeled these as “big problem(s)” (attitude and support n？=？6 (12%), policy n？=？7 (14%)). The presence of depressive symptoms was associated with the frequency in which attitudinal and support (rho？=？0.50, P？<？0.001), physical and structural (rho？=？0.46, P？<？0.001), and service and assistance (rho？=？0.28, P？=？0.04) barriers were reported, as well as magnitude of attitude and support barriers (rho？=？0.48, P？<？0.001). In multivariable regression analysis, depressive symptoms and walking capacity explained 21% of the variance of the frequency of attitude and support barriers (P？=？0.004), where depressive symptoms was an independent correlate (P？=？0.004). No other factors were associated with environmental barriers to leisure participation. Individuals with stroke report frequent and large physical and structural environmental barriers to leisure participation, which may be associated with the presence of depressive symptoms