Avaliação do nível de atividade física de estudantes de graduação das áreas saúde/biológica

Abstract

Background: Regular physical activity practice is consideredan important factor in the population’s health and quality of lifepromotion. In order to evaluate a population’s physical activity lev-el (PAL), many instruments are used, among them the IPAQ (Inter-national Physical Activity Questionnaire). Objectives: To evaluate the PAL of Physical Education (PE) undergraduate students con-cerning gender and study year as well as to compare the PAL ofthese students with others from different health / biology courses.Methods: Two hundred and eighty subjects; being 194 PE stu-dents (100 men and 94 women) and 86 students (17 men and 69women) of other courses (Pharmacy; Biochemistry, Dentistry andBiology). The instrument used to measure the PAL was the IPAQin its short version. Results: Among the PE students, it was foundthat 92% of them were classified as active or very active; howev-er, there was no significant difference (p > 0,05) between maleand female groups. Concerning the other courses, it was observedthat the female sample is less physically active than the male one(p < 0,05). Considering the whole group in the category Active /Very Active, the Biology (86,9%) and PE students (90%) were clas-sified as more active than the Biochemistry (56%) and Dentistry(61,1%) ones. However, there was no significant difference (p >0,05). Conclusions: Generally, male students have a higher levelof physical activity than female ones; the undergraduate studentsdid not show similar patterns of PAL and this level remains con-stant during the PE course