author(s)
Masood Ahmad Sheikh and Dr. S Victor Devasirvadam

abstract
Modifiable physical activity, sedentary and diet behaviours are associated with morbidity and mortality, and it is a national priority to improve these behaviours in all populations, including among adolescents. Expert groups have recommended 60 minutes/day of moderate to vigorous physical activity for youth, yet data based on objective measures suggest that only 30% of teenagers meet this guideline. Adolescents view television for less than 2 hours a day. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that only 15% of adolescents aged 12–19 years meet the <30% of energy recommendation for total fat intake, and 7% of adolescents meet the <10% of energy recommendation for saturated fat intake. Data from CDC’s 2003 Youth Risk Behaviours survey indicated that fewer than 22% of high school students consumed the recommended 5 or more servings/day of fruits and vegetables. Meeting the public health recommendations for these four health risk behaviours is expected to improve quality of life and reduce considerably the incidence of obesity and several chronic diseases. Despite extensive evidence about the high prevalence of risk behaviours, little is known about the relationship among these behaviours, such as their clustering patterns, especially in adolescents. There is some evidence that diet and physical activity behaviours tend to cluster among individuals. Improved understanding of behavioral clustering could inform strategies for multiple risk factor interventions. Identifying characteristics of adolescents most likely to have multiple risk behaviours could lead to more targeted intervention strategies. Based on the problem selected and objectives of the study, descriptive research design was selected to identify the barriers of physical activity among adolescents in a selected school Kashmir with a view to develop a lifestyle modification programme. Sixty subjects were selected in selected area of Kashmir by non-probability sampling technique for this study. Self-structured checklist was used for data collection and was analysed by descriptive and inferential statistics using chi-square and t-test. The findings revealed that there was moderate positive correlation (r = 0.78 and P= 0.978) between barriers to physical activity and healthy diet among adolescents in selected school of Kashmir. The findings also revealed that there was statistically significant association between barriers to physical activity and healthy diet with these variables (educational status, fathers education and source of information) whereas no significant association was found between barriers to physical activity and healthy diet with these variables (age, type of family, area of residence and mothers education) at (p<0.05).