BMC Public Health 2007, 7:230 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/7/230 Table 1: Characteristics of the study population with percentage of the participants who are active during leisure time for each characteristic Total number of participants N = 485 n (%) Physically in-active par- ticipants n (%) Physically active participants n (%) Sex Men Women Age 15–19 years 20–24 years 25–30 years Mean age (sd) Country of birth Born in Turkey Born in the Netherlands Marital status Married or cohabiting Not married/not cohabiting Educational level Low Moderate to high Acculturation indicatorsa Cultural orientation Low High Social contacts with ethnic Dutch Few Many Contextual barriers Neighbourhood environmenta Attractive neighbourhood Less attractive neighbourhood Children under 16 Having no children One or more children living at home Occupational physical activitya No activity at work Activity at work Overall measure of contextual barriersb Exercise-supportive (no barriers) Exercise-inhibiting (≥1 barrier) Physical activity during leisure time Physically active (≥ once a week) Physically inactive 236 (48.7) 249 (51.3) 221 (45.6) 113 (23.3) 151 (31.1) 21.6 (5.0) 212 (43.7) 273 (56.3) 167 (34.4) 318 (65.6) 226 (46.6) 259 (53.4) 304 (65.8) 158 (34.2) 346 (72.2) 133 (27.8) 299 (64.7) 163 (35.3) 322 (66.4) 163 (33.6) 345 (83.9) 66 (16.1) 197 (40.6) 288 (59.4) 269 (55.5) 216 (44.5) 87 (40.3) 129 (59.7) 99 (45.8) 44 (20.4) 73 (33.8) 21.8 (5.2) 105 (48.6) 111 (51.4) 89 (41.2) 127 (58.8) 107 (49.5) 109 (50.5) 151 (72.2) 58 (27.8) 169 (79.0) 45 (21.0) 120 (58.5) 85 (41.5) 134 (62.0) 82 (38.0) 204 (94.4) 12 (5.6) 73 (34.9) 136 (65.1) 149 (55.4)* 120 (44.6) 122 (45.4) 69 (25.7) 78 (29.0) 21.5 (4.8) 107 (39.8)* 162 (60.2) 78 (29.0)* 191 (71.0) 119 (44.2) 150 (55.8) 153 (60.5)* 100 (39.5) 177 (66.8)* 88 (33.2) 179 (69.6)* 78 (30.4) 188 (69.9)* 81 (30.1) 241 (89.6)* 28 (10.4) 116 (44.3)* 146 (55.7) a Numbers do not add up to total number of sample due to missing data. b When none of the three barriers (children, less attractive neighbourhood, occupational physical activity) were present, people were categorized as living in an exercise-supportive context. When one or more barriers were present, people were categorized as living in an exercise-inhibiting context. * P-value < .05 barriers (exercise supportive context: OR 3.24, CI: 1.51– 6.96). This association was not found in the group who did experience at least one of the mentioned barriers (exercise inhibiting context: OR 1.40 (CI: 0.79–2.50). A similar, somewhat less strong, result was found for 'social contacts with ethnic Dutch' with Odds of 2.22 (CI: 1.11– 4.41) within the exercise supportive context and 1.77 (CI: 0.99–3.18) within the exercise-inhibiting context. Discussion This study explored how the association between accultur- ation and physical activity during leisure time is modified by the presence of the following contextual barriers: 'hav- ing children', 'participating in occupational physical activ- ity' and 'living in a less attractive neighbourhood'. We found that persons with a Turkish background who were more culturally orientated towards the Dutch society and Page 5 of 9 (page number not for citation purposes)