Physical activity of first year students at Lithuanian academy of physical education

Subject of the study: Particularities of the physical activity index. Problematic questions of the survey: What is the physical activity index of the first year students at Lithuanian Academy of Physical Education? Is there any difference in the work-related, leisure-related and sport-related physical activity indices of students-respondents? Is there any difference between physical activity work-related, leisure-related, sport-related physical activity indices of men and women? Which kind of physical activity is prevailing? Our objective of the survey: to establish the particularities of the physical activity index of first year students – men and women – at Lithuanian Academy of Physical Education. The tasks: 1. To establish the particularities of the work-related physical activity index of the students by gender. 2. To establish the particularities of the sport-related physical activity index of the first year students by gender. 3. To establish the particularities of the leisure-related physical activity index of the first year students by gender. 4. To find out the prevailing everyday physical activity index of the first year students. The survey was conducted in 2008. 248 students (87 men and 161 women) at Lithuanian Academy of Physical Education were surveyed. During this survey, a Baecke questionnaire for everyday physical activity was used. The surveyed were selected applying the random - set method. During the survey, a method of questioning by questionnaire in written form was applied. The questionnaire was composed of eighteen statements with given possible versions of answers. Some statements were closed type (only one answer was allowed to be chosen from all submitted versions of the answer). The questioning was performed under conditions of anonymity of the surveyed, information provision on survey objectives and its course. The survey was conducted at the end of a lecture, after the permission of the lecturer had been obtained. The analysis of the results of the survey has demonstrated that the work-related physical activity of the majority of first year students at Lithuanian Academy of Physical Education is not extremely intensive, mostly students are sitting in their working places, and very small number of them are working when walking. During their work time, the men and women rarely lift heavy objects. They perspire just occasionally and after all work has been completed, they do not feel themselves tired. The men and the women and approximately a half of the students-respondents think that their work, in comparison to the same age persons, is of average hardness. At Lithuanian Academy of Physical Education, among the first year students surveyed, almost all athletes-men were doing sports, and among women one third of them was not occupied with any kind of sports. Among those students who were doing sports, men were spending more time for sports activity than women, also twice as much men were doing additionally another kind of sports. During sport-related physical activity, the men chose training equipment first. Playing the game of basketball was in the second place, then went football, boxing and track-and-field athletics. The women more frequently chose the game of volleyball, then swimming, exercising at sport and fitness clubs, aerobics, handball, track-and-field athletics and fitness. 49 per cent of men and 33 per cent of women were doing sports for more than 4 hours per week. Among those who were doing sports for more than 1-2 hour time period per week, there were 11 per cent of men and 21 per cent of women. Also, it was established that 70 per cent of men and 53 per cent of women for over 9 months per year practised sports-related physical activity, and only 4 per cent of men and 6 per cent of women were doing sports for time period of 1-3 months per year. During leisure time, when comparing themselves with other people of the same age, 52 per cent of men and 33 per cent maintained that their physical activity was more intensive, and 16 and 31 respectively maintained that it was the same. During the sport-related leisure time, 64 per cent of men and 50 per cent of women perspired extremely frequently and frequently. Among the ways of spending leisure-related time, there were various games like snooker, bowling etc. Such kind of leisure time spending was chosen by only 5 per cent of men and 1 per cent of women surveyed. They always practised this kind of sports during their leisure time. Frequently such kind of entertainment was taken by 27 per cent of men, 26 per cent of women. 37 per cent of men and 43 per cent of women only occasionally chose that kind of sports for their leisure activity. 26 per cent of men and 19 per cent of women rarely chose such sports. And 5 percent of men and 11 per cent of women did not tolerate at all such kind of entertainment during their leisure time. Among the students surveyed, only 2 per cent of men and the same number of women always chose the passive way of leisure time spending, for example TV viewing. Those who frequently spent their free time in front of TV set, made 41 per cent of men and 36 per cent of women. Rarely spent time in front of the TV set 34 per cent of men and 33 per cent of women or possibly they did not have time for this at all. 2 per cent of men and 4 per cent of women never spent their free time in such manner. Among students-respondents at Lithuanian Academy of Physical Education the walking during leisure-related physical activity was popular only among 1 per cent of men and 6 per cent of women. According to the replies of students-respondents, among those who went cycling frequently during their leisure time there were only 4 percent of men and 15 per cent of women. More than 45 minutes per day one fourth of students spent walking. Thus, the highest average score of physical activity among those three activity forms was that of sport-related activity – 3,19 men’s score and 2,9 women’s score. The average scores of work-related activity were the lowest – 2,43 men’s average score and 2,3 women’s average score. The average score of leisure-related physical activity index was 2,85 men’s score and 3,0 women’s. The physical activity index of students-men at Lithuanian Academy of Physical Education is 8,47 and that of women – 8,1