Physical activity of future health care professionals: adherence to current recommendations

Abstract

Objectives: When assessing physical activity (PA), particular attention should be paid to medical university students who are taught to be health care professionals (HCPs) responsible for maintaining health in humans. However, different studies have shown that HCPs exhibit the same unhealthy behaviors as the general population. This study analyzed PA among medical university students of different faculties and their adherence to current PA recommendations. Material and Methods: Data from 216 medical university students of physiotherapy, dietetics and pharmacy, including males (N = 44) and females (N = 172), the mean age of 22.3±1.8 years, were collected. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire in its long form (IPAQ-LF) was used to assess and classify PA behaviors. The results were analyzed in accordance with World Health Organization recommendations regarding PA. Results: Over 60% of all the students were classified as active during all-day activity. However, while analyzing PA in different domains, the same shares of all the students were still insufficiently active during leisure time, and so they did not meet the recommendation of >75 min/week of vigorous PA, >150 min/week of moderate PA or an equivalent combination. All the students self-reported PA mainly in the work and transport domains. Generally, physiotherapy students were the most active and performed PA with higher intensity. Conclusions: This study revealed a low level of leisure time PA among the students, and no habit of regular PA. Some changes in medical education should be suggested to include physical education as a long-term subject in medical school curricula. Future research is needed to investigate the exercise barriers that students perceive, which can guide future interventions aimed at improving their PA, and thereby impact on the quality of health care which they will provide.

Association between Physical Activity Level, Body Composition, and Phase Angle in University Students from Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA)

“…Researchers conducting studies in Libya indicated that better academic performance was correlated with higher levels of physical activity among students [47]. Lipert et al's analysis of 216 students in physiotherapy, dietetics, and pharmacy majors at medical universities revealed a low level of physical activity during leisure time, with physiotherapy students being the most active and engaging in exercises with higher intensity [48]. In our own studies, students majoring in physical education most frequently chose active forms of leisure time, while computer science students chose them least frequently.…”

Chronic effect of bioresonance therapy on cardiovascular risk factors and physical activity pattern in the elderly: a randomized clinical trial

“…Multiple factors related to the individual and the environment are identified as barriers to physical activity behavior change (BÉLANGER et al, 2017). However, behavior change depends both on the process of awareness and education throughout life, and on the desire to change habits (LIPERT et al, 2020), which can be analyzed using the transtheoretical model (RIOS, 2017).…”

Physical Education: Practice, Cessation and Resumption in Untrained Saudi College Students

“…Current scientific evidence indicates that university students neither practice enough physical exercise, nor comply with the global recommendations on Physical Activity (PA) established by the World Health Organization. This phenomenon is not limited to specific countries, but affects college students from all continents (Irwin et al, 2004;Clemente, Nikolaidis, Martins, & Mendes, 2016;Griban et al, 2020;Lipert et al, 2020;Mandić et al, 2020). In Saudi Arabia, recent studies addressing this aspect have reported low levels of PA practice (El Bcheraoui et al, 2016;Almutairi et al, 2018).…”