Health-related fitness (HRF) knowledge is believed to be helpful in establishing habitual physical activity (PA) patterns among students. Our understanding of college students' HRF knowledge mastery, however, is limited. This study examines how much HRF knowledge students possess in a large southern state university.
Method
Undergraduate students from nine classes participated in the study in the Spring semester of 2009. The majority of the participants were females (72%). There were 48.3%, 18.9%, 18.2%, 14.6% Whites, Latinos, Asians, and Africa Americans, respectively. A relatively equal number of freshman through seniors participated. College student HRF knowledge was assessed using a test which consisted of 152 multiple choice items. The content validity was tested by a panel of experts in the fields of fitness, health, and physical education.
Analysis/Results
The means and standard deviations of the HRF knowledge test scores were computed and the differences in HRF knowledge scores by gender, ethnicity, and years in university were examined by ANOVA. Overall, students demonstrated a lack of mastery of HRF knowledge as the majority of the students only answered one third of the questions correctly. There was a significant difference in knowledge scores by ethnicity [F(3, 142) = 6.87, p < .01]. The post hoc test revealed that White students had the highest mean score, followed by Asian, Latino, and Africa American students. No significant gender or years in university differences in HRF knowledge were found.
Conclusions
The data from the study suggest that many university students have yet to master important HRF concepts that could influence their health behaviors. This lack of mastery of HRF knowledge may contribute to insufficient physical activity levels and corresponding increasing obesity rates among colledge students.