Examining Vigorous Physical Activity and Health Risk Behaviors in College Students

The relationship between vigorous physical activity (VPA) and other health behaviors among college students is unclear. Identifying health risk behaviors may enable health educators to develop prevention programs that target the needs of at-risk populations. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the health behaviors of a large sample of college students who were meeting, and not meeting, the VPA recommendation. The Utah Higher Education Health Behavior Survey was administered in 2005 to ten post-secondary institutions in the state. The survey question for VPA inquired how many days of the week students were physically active to the point of “sweating” and “breathing hard” for at least 30 minutes. Students meeting the VPA recommendation must have answered at least three days of the week to satisfy the VPA criteria, as per ACSM recommendations. Other health behaviors examined were seatbelt use, using marijuana/hashish, crack/cocaine, stimulants, MDMA (ecstasy), cigarettes, and the frequency of physical fights. Data were cleaned by eliminating outliers and excluding subjects with missing values for the questions of interest. VPA was dichotomized for those who were and were not meeting the criteria for engaging in VPA. Descriptive statistics, t-tests, and chi-squares were calculated. The final dataset included 8,492 respondents (male: n = 3,961, age = 22.22 ± 2.63 years, BMI = 24.75 ± 4.20 kg/m²; female: n = 4,531 age = 20.74 ± 2.61 years, BMI = 23.16 ± 4.37 kg/m²). On average, students reported engaging in VPA 2.66 ± 0.94 days per week. Of the total sample, 50.58 % were meeting the VPA recommendation. Results indicated three out of the seven health behaviors were significant with VPA. Students not meeting the VPA recommendation reported smoking more cigarettes (X²[5] = 41.02, p < 0.0001) than students who were vigorously active. Conversely, students who were meeting the VPA recommendation reported fighting (X²[4] = 51.98, p < 0.0001) and smoking marijuana (X²[1] = 4.51, p < 0.03) more often than their non-vigorously active counterparts. These findings are important for health educators. By examining the correlates of VPA in college students, barriers to healthy lifestyles can be identified, and prevention efforts can be focused where they will be most advantageous. Similar research should be examined to investigate the efficacy of these findings.
Keyword(s): exercise/fitness/physical activity, health education college/univ