Leisure-Time Physical Exercise: Prevalence, Attitudinal Correlates, and Behavioral Correlates among Young Europeans from 21 Countries

Background. Increasing leisure time physical exer-cise is a major target of public health programs throughout the developed world, but few interna-tional comparisons of exercise habits among people from diverse cultures have been published. The objec-tives of this study were to assess the prevalence of exercise among young adults from 21 European coun-tries, to analyze associations with health beliefs and risk awareness, and to investigate relationships among exercise, other health-related behaviors, and emotional well-being. Methods. The European Health and Behaviour Sur-vey, a questionnaire survey of 7,302 male and 9,181 female university students ages 18–30 years from 21 countries, was analyzed