Background/Purpose: To determine if health-related fitness (HRF) knowledge is related to self-reported physical activity (PA) of high school students.
Method:Participants included 165 (88 males, 77 females) students from two high schools in one district in the Southwestern U.S. The majority of students were Caucasian (78%), age 16 (70.8%) and in the 10th grade (83.9%). Data was collected during one physical education class. A 100 point HRF knowledge test was created focusing on the HRF concepts of cardiovascular endurance, muscular fitness, body composition, and flexibility, using the question bank from the Fitness for Life Teacher Resources CD-ROM. Physical activity was assessed using the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents (PAQ-A) (Kowalski et al., 1997). The PAQ-A includes eight items, each scored on a 5-point scale (1's being the least active behavior to 5's being the most active). The total activity score of the PAQ-A is the calculated mean of the eight items. The test and survey took 30-60 minutes to complete. The students were provided with written instructions regarding how to complete the instruments. In addition, the primary investigator was present to answer questions.
Analysis/Results: One-way ANOVA's indicated no significant difference by gender on HRF tests and PAQ-A scores, thus gender was not factored into the final analysis. A Pearson correlation coefficient was generated to examine the strength of relationship between HRF test and PAQ-A scores. There was a moderate positive correlation between HRF test and PAQ-A scores (r(168) = .438, p < .001). This means that those who scored higher on the HRF test also tended to report being more physically active based on the PAQ-A. As a secondary analysis students who reported scores which rounded to 1-2 on the PAQ-A were categorized as low active (n =50), scores rounded to 3 as moderately active (n = 73), and scores rounded to 4-5 as high active (n = 44). One-way ANOVA indicated a significant between group differences (F(2, 166) = 23.36, p < .001). Tukey's post-hoc revealed significant differences between the low active and moderately active groups, and low active and high active groups (p's < .001), but not between the moderately active and high active groups (p = .352).
Conclusions: Students who scored higher on the HRF knowledge test also reported higher levels of PA. Future studies should examine changes in knowledge, attitude towards PA, current PA levels, and future intent to be physically active among students in fit-for-life classes.