Open AccessPattern of Physical Activity among Undergraduate Medical Students: A Multicentric Cross-sectional Study Across Bihar, India
Author(s) -
Neha Chaudhary,
Shradha Mishra,
Manish Kumar,
Yamini Sharma,
Shamshad Ahmad
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of clinical and diagnostic research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2249-782X
pISSN - 0973-709X
DOI - 10.7860/jcdr/2020/44753.14175
Subject(s) - overweight , cross sectional study , metabolic equivalent , medicine , logistic regression , test (biology) , physical activity , obesity , demography , psychology , gerontology , physical therapy , paleontology , pathology , sociology , biology
Inspite of the fact that the medical students have a greater awareness about a healthy lifestyle; their academic stress to perform well may poorly affect their pattern of physical activity and thus, compromise their overall health. Aim: To assess the level of physical activity among undergraduate medical students studying in various institutions across the state of Bihar and to evaluate the Metabolic Equivalent Task (MET) score so as to measure the intensity of physical activity performed by the participants. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted among the undergraduate students, studying in different medical colleges across Bihar, India. An Online Google Form was created using a short version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). The collected data was analysed using Stata (Version 13) software. Results were presented as frequencies, mean and standard deviation. Chi-square test was applied to test for significant association at 0.05 level of significance. To identify the predictors of physical activity, multiple logistic regression analysis of the data was done. Results: A total of 1200 students participated in the study. Among these, 64.3% were males and 35.7% were females. More than half of the participants (57.6%) were aged <21 years. Majority of the participants (67.7%) had normal weight followed by overweight/obese (22.8%). Approximately, half of the participants (54.4%) reported availability of gym in their campus and only 26.7% of the participants were following regular routine of physical exercise. Maximum students under the study were residing in the hostel (89.4%); who were reaching college mainly by walking (74.8%), {OR=17.5 (12.9-23.5)}. On multivariate analysis; Body Mass Index (BMI), age, having an availability of gym in the campus and following a regular routine of physical exercise were found to be significant predictors of physical activity. Conclusion: In present study, the majority were sufficiently physically active. However, the low physical activity was observed among the overweight/obese participants is a distressing fact which may reflect the need to integrate the physical education electives in the curriculum