Assessing the level of physical activity among UiTM Perlis students

Abstract

Physical inactivity has become a major health concern in Malaysia. It is associated with several cardiovascular diseases, chronic diseases, and even death. This study aims to assess the level of physical activity (PA) among students of Universiti Teknologi MARA Perlis. A cross-sectional study was carried out among 167 students within the age group of 20 to 27 years old. The Malaysian version of the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ) was used to measure the PA level. The results were expressed in MET-minutes/week (metabolic equivalent). More than half of the students (59%) were engaged in high physical activity per week, while 40% were engaged in moderate PA. A low level of physical activity was reported by 1% of the students. There was a significant contrast in the level of PA between genders, where the male was found to engage more in total PA than the female (p = 0.001). Sports Science students’ engagement was significantly higher in the total of PA (4600.13 MET) than in Business Administration students (3354.05 MET) (p = 0.002). There was a weak relationship between METS and gender (r = - 0.233, p = 0.002) and between MET and faculty (r = -0.287, p = 0.002), respectively. The present result indicates that most of the university students were physically active, where males were most active compared to females. However, a negative relation was found between the MET and gender or faculty, respectively. In essence, further research is necessary to identify the physical activity determinants among these populations.