Adherence to the Physical Activity Pyramid: Comparison Between Academic Majors

The association between exercise and health is clearly established; the Physical Activity Pyramid is ýwidely accepted as a valid guideline for maintaining appropriate levels of physical activity. Health, ýphysical education, and kinesiology majors are entering jobs in which they will likely be perceived as ýrole models for appropriate health-promoting behaviors, including physical activity. The purpose of ýthis study was to determine if differences exist between the academic majors of community health ýscience (health), physical education pedagogy (pedagogy), and kinesiology in regard to adherence to ýthe guidelines of the Physical Activity Pyramid. Approval was received through the university IRB. A ýconvenience sample of 164 undergraduate students (58 health, 45 pedagogy, 62 kinesiology) ýcompleted a questionnaire (Nieman, 2007) assessing adherence to the recommendations of the ýPyramid components of lifestyle physical activity, aerobic fitness, muscular strength, flexibility, ýreducing inactivity, and overall performance. Descriptive statistics were used; ANOVA/Tukey ýcoefficient assessed means between majors; chi square assessed differences between majors on ýindividual components. Level of significance was p < .05 for all analyses. Health majors had ýsignificantly lower overall performance scores (p = .043). Descriptive statistics revealed lower ýadherence percentages for health majors for all components except "reduce inactivity"; however, ýsignificance was found only for muscular strength (p=.004). The importance of role-modeling in health ýpromotion has been established. This study indicates a need for further exploration of ways to ýimprove the physical activity behaviors, and thus role-modeling, of health majors in the area of levels ýof physical activity, as determined by the Physical Activity Pyramid.ý