Differences in aerobic capacity among students with regard to their level of nutritional status

Abstract

Due to contemporary lifestyle, nutritional status of students is poorer and therefore it negatively affects the aerobic capacity. The purpose of this study was to determine the differences in aerobic capacity among female students of Faculty of Teacher Education with regard to their level of nutritional status. The study included 281 female students of the Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Zagreb. The sample of variables consisted of anthropometric measures: body height, body weight, sub-scapular and triceps skinfolds. Aerobic capacity was measured by 20 meter shuttle run test and nutritional status was determined by the body mass index (BMI). The subjects were divided into four groups according to their nutritional status: underweight, normal body weight, overweight and obese. Mean values of the BMI place the students into normal weight group, however, mean values of aerobic capacity show that students achieved poor results. Kruskal Wallis test and its post-hoc test (multiple comparisons for all groups with Bonferroni adjustment) for determining the difference between subsamples according to the level of nutritional status among students show that the subsamples differ in four of the five variables that describe the morphological characteristics (body weight, BMI, sub-scapular skinfold, triceps skinfold) as well as in aerobic capacity. The results obtained in this study show that the increased body mass have extremely high impact on the aerobic capacity results. It can be concluded that the tested students' aerobic capacity is poor and students with normal body weight have better aerobic capacity than overweight or obese students.