Physical Activity among Spanish Undergraduate Students: A Descriptive Correlational Study

Jorge Acebes-Sánchez, Ignacio Diez-Vega and Gabriel Rodriguez-Romo
Additional contact information
Jorge Acebes-Sánchez: Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Francisco de Vitoria (UFV), Pozuelo de Alarcón, 28223 Madrid, Spain
Ignacio Diez-Vega: Faculty of Sport Sciences, Universidad Europea de Madrid (UEM), Villaviciosa de Odón, 28670 Madrid, Spain
Gabriel Rodriguez-Romo: Faculty of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences (INEF), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), 28040 Madrid, Spain

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 15, 1-13

Abstract: Achieving the recommended levels of physical activity (PA) is associated with better health. Despite this, most undergraduate students report low levels of PA. This study aimed to assess the achievement of recommended PA levels in a wide sample of undergraduate students from Madrid ( N = 2960). Overall PA and leisure-time PA (LTPA) were measured with the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ). Descriptive analyses and logistic regression were performed. It was revealed that 22.4% and 55.6% of overall PA and LTPA, respectively, did not achieve World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations. When PA was measured as overall PA, the achievement of the recommended level was positively predicted by male sex; a Body Mass Index (BMI) indicative of normal weight or being overweight; spending less time sitting or reclining; work; and studying health science, social sciences, engineering, or architecture (all p < 0.001; r 2 = 0.075). Using LTPA, the positive predictors of achieving recommended PA levels were male sex, having a BMI indicative of normal weight or being overweight, work, studying at a public university, and studying health science ( r 2 = 0.048). These findings suggest that universities should implement strategies to promote PA.

Keywords: physical activity; leisure-time physical activity; GPAQ; undergraduate students; recommendations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/15/2770/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/15/2770/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:15:p:2770-:d:254348

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().