Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH

Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Female University Students’ Physical Activity Levels and Associated Factors — A Cross-Sectional Study in Southwestern Saudi Arabia
Högskolan i Kristianstad.
Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, GIH, Department of Sport and Health Sciences, Björn Ekblom's research group.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-6058-4982
Karolinska Institutet.
Show others and affiliations
2013 (Swedish)In: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, ISSN 1661-7827, E-ISSN 1660-4601, Vol. 10, no 8, p. 3502-3517Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Background: The high prevalence of physical inactivity in Saudi Arabia is a growing challenge to public health. This study aimed to examine the prevalence of physical activity (PA) and associated factors among female university students. Methods: This cross-sectional study involved 663 randomly selected female university students who completed the Arab Teens Life Style questionnaire. Data included measurements of anthropometric, socioeconomic and environmental factors, as well as self-reported PA. Ordinal regression was used to identify associated factors with low, moderate and high PA levels.Results: The mean age of participants was 20.4 years (SD 1.5). Mean BMI of the students in relation to PA were 23.0, 22.9, 22.1 for high, moderate and low levels of activity, respectively. The analysis revealed significantly higher PA levels among married students, those with high educated mothers, and those who lived far from parks, and lower activity levels among underweight students. Conclusions: This study raises four important determinants for female university students’ PA levels. These factors could be of great importance in the endeavor to prevent the health-threatening increase in physical inactivity patterns and thus non-communicable diseases and obesity where the focus should be on the specific situation and needs of women in Saudi Arabia.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2013. Vol. 10, no 8, p. 3502-3517
Keywords [en]
epidemiologic methods, Middle East, women’s health, Saudi Arabia, physical activity, female university students, cross-sectional studies, socioeconomic factors
National Category
Medical and Health Sciences
Research subject
Medicine/Technology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:gih:diva-3200DOI: 10.3390/ijerph10083502OAI: oai:DiVA.org:gih-3200DiVA, id: diva2:688157
Available from: 2014-01-16 Created: 2014-01-16 Last updated: 2017-12-06Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full texthttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3774451/

Authority records

Ekblom, Örjan

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Ekblom, Örjan
By organisation
Björn Ekblom's research group
In the same journal
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Medical and Health Sciences

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 205 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf