Levels of physical activity and its relation between the distribution by sex and academic program in a university

Abstract

Purpose of the study was to relate the levels of physical activity identified in university students with their gender and the academic program to which they belong. e cross-sectional methodology with stratified simple random sampling design without replacement, with a sample size of 329 students, was evaluated by probabilistic surveys using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire short version. e Excel program was used to tabulate the data and the statistical soware R-project to obtain BoxPlot graphics and Chi2 test, as well as the correspondence analysis for multivariate data representation. e results were that 65.7% of the students are at a low level, 19.8% on a moderate level, 14.6% in a high level of physical activity. e prevalence of low levels of physical activity in men was 55.6% and in women 70.6%. Statistically, the level of physical activity depends on the student's gender (p <0.05), with women obtaining a lower level of physical activity. e level of physical activity also depends on the undergraduate program that the student studies (p <0.05), acquiring higher levels of physical activity those who study Bachelor of Physical Education. In conclusion, most of the university students are in the margin of sedentarism, with a higher prevalence in women and academic programs with few human movement practices. For this reason, it is suggested to encourage strategies that promote the performance of a regular physical activity, independently of the existence of programs, such as Physiotherapy whose object of study is focused on human movement.