Leisure time physical activity of young women from the carpathian euroregion in relation to the body mass index

Abstract

The Carpathian Euroregion comprises the population of 5 countries, including Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania - members of the European Union, as well as the Ukraine. Young women are statistically less involved in high-intensity physical activity than young men. The objective of this study was to assess the relationship between physical activity of young women aged 18-21 years and the BMI and conditioning factors. The study was conducted between 2010-2011 among 2,339 women. The Minnesota Leisure Time Physical Activity Questionnaire (MLTPAQ) was applied. It results from the study that 74.2% of young women are considered to have the proper BMI rate (18.5-24.9). As many as 16.2% are considered underweight and almost 10% have a higher BMI rate and are overweight. More than one third of respondents did not achieve the level of physical activity of 1,000 kcal/week, which is the minimum recommended amount of leisure physical activity time per week. In the case of women with low level of physical activity (<1,000 kcal), as many as 52% of the week activity is considered low-intensity activity EEPAlight. The character of changes of the BMI index with reference to the level of physical activity is very similar in women from towns/cities and women from villages. An increase of BMI along with the total physical activity was related to the increase of free fat mass FFM, despite of the level of physical activity.