Participation in leisure activities and self-perception of health in the students of the University of Split

The research was performed to find out the way in which students at the University of Split spend their leisure time and what was the portion of sporting activities in it in relation to self-appraisal of their health status. A sample of 449 subjects (mean age 21 years; 380 female and 69 male students) was surveyed by questionnaire. The results of the t-test showed statistically significant gender differences in criterion variables. The students with longer sport experience felt far less health-related discomforts than the others. The female students with more leisure time self-evaluated their health as better. The sport experience of men was longer than the experience of the women, and they preferred sport games and resistance training in gyms. The self-perceived health evaluation of men was generally higher than the self-perception of health in women, except for anger, which was lower in female students. The female students listed numerous health-related discomforts and medical conditions, among which particularly conspicuous was the general feeling of being tired connected with a sequence of psychosomatic discomforts (tension, feeling restless, back pain and leg pain). The discomforts and medical conditions reported by the young female students are comparable to those already reported by the general population of older people. They were caused primarily by hypokinesis and stress, or vice versa, the majority of discomforts and medical conditions were induced by insufficient physical activity, that is, by a sedentary lifestyle, which draws attention to the necessity for intervention in the leisure time of the young, especially college or university students