Background/Purpose: Every effort is needed to promote physical activity (PA) among college students because about half have been found to lack adequate PA. This study aims to investigate PA differences among students in a large southern state university.
Method
The university students' PA data collected by American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment in 2008 were analyzed. In total, 1133 students provided usable data. There were 38.0% and 62.0% males and females, respectively. More than half the students were white (56.5%), followed by Asians (20.5%) and Latinos (17.1%). PA (i.e., days participated in moderate PA [MPA] and vigorous PA [VPA] for at least 30 min. per week) was measured using an online survey which has been implemented in higher education periodically since 2004.
Analysis/Results
The means and standard deviations for days engaged in MPA and VPA were calculated. MANOVAs were used to test differences in MPA and VPA by gender and ethnicity, BMI and general health, and GPA and years in university, respectively. The MANOVA results revealed significant MPA and VPA differences in gender [Wilks' Lambda = .99, F(2, 1098) = 4.08, p < .05], ethnicity [Wilks' Lambda = .96, F(6, 2196) = 7.01, p < .01], interaction between gender and ethnicity [Wilks' Lambda = .99, F(6, 2196) = 2.12, p < .05], and general health [Wilks' Lambda = .98, F(6, 2170) = 4.69, p < .01]. The post hoc test indicated that male students performed more MPA and VPA than their female counterparts. White students had significantly more MPA and VPA than all other ethnicities (i.e., Latinos, Asians, and others). Latino students have significantly more MPA than Asians and other ethnicity group while no VPA differences in those ethnicity groups were found. Those who ranked their general health as “excellent” performed significantly higher amounts of MPA and VPA than those who ranked their health as “good” and “fair”. No significant differences in MPA and VPA by BMI, years in university, and GPA were found.
Conclusions
The findings from the study are consistent with what has been reported previously that female, and minority students need more PA interventions. Although the result was not significant, an observable trend was that student MPA and VPA declined as their years in university increases, indicating that the university has not significantly increased student PA, even though the American college health association has actively called for promoting PA on campus.