Health behaviors of amateur mountain bike athletes

Abstract

Purpose. The aim of the study was to characterize health behaviors of amateur mountain biking marathon participants. Methods. The study included 819 participants of amateur mountain biking marathons in Poland, 82.17% of whom were male and 17.83% were female. The average age of the participants was 34.85 ± 8.7 years. The tools used in the study were Juszczyński's Inventory of Health Behaviors (IHB) and an original survey form. Results. More than half of the participants (58.49%) displayed pro-health behaviors. The study showed a statistically significant correlation between pro-health behaviors and interpersonal status (p = 0.036), having children (p = 0.013), age (p = 0.031), and time devoted to training (p = 0.003). Conclusions. A majority of mountain biking marathon participants display pro-health behaviors. Promoting pro-health practices and prophylactic measures among people playing sports as a form of recreation should be paid attention to.