Physical activity levels and junk food intake among female undergraduate students in Mandya: a cross sectional study

INTRODUCTION

Physical activity is defined as any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that requires energy expenditure and refers to all movement including during leisure time, for transport to get to and from places, or as part of a person’s work. As per World Health Organization recommendations, adults aged 18-64 years should engage in at least 150-300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity or 75-150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity per week, or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity activity.¹

Physical inactivity and unhealthy diets were the two most common risk factors for noncommunicable diseases (NCD). Worldwide about 74% and in India, about 66% of deaths were due to noncommunicable diseases.^2,3 People who are insufficiently active have a 20% to 30% increased risk of death compared to people who are sufficiently active.¹

Between 2001 and 2016, insufficient activity increased by 5%, from 31.6% to 36.8% in high-income nations.¹ Worldwide around one-third of women and one-fourth of men lack enough physical activity in order to remain healthy. In 2016, 28% of adults aged 18 and up were not physically active enough, among them 23% of them were males and 32% were females.¹ In India, 25% of males and 44% of females aged more than 18 years were physically inactive.²

Junk food is defined as, any food, which is low in essential nutrients such as proteins, vitamins or minerals and high in salt, sugar, fats and calories. Highly salted like chips, high in refined carbohydrates with zero calories like candy, soft drinks and high in saturated fats like cake and chocolates were few examples for junk foods.⁴

An energy imbalance between calories expended and calories consumed, which results from an increase in energy-dense foods high in fat and sugar, as well as an increase in physical inactivity brought on by a shift in transportation options, an increasingly sedentary workforce, and growing urbanization, is the cause of obesity and overweight. Overall, about 13% of the world’s adult population (11% of men and 15% of women) were obese in 2016 and worldwide prevalence of obesity nearly tripled between 1975 and 2016.⁵

Physical activity levels and prevalence of obesity differ by gender among adolescents. Globally, 84.7% of adolescent girls and 77.6% for boys do not meet World Health Organization recommendations for physical activity.⁶ This pattern of behaviour is common among female adolescents worldwide, and more effective NCD prevention strategies for this group are needed. This research will be crucial in creating targeted interventions to promote healthier lifestyles among female undergraduate students and to empower young women to make educated choices that benefit their long-term health.

Metabolic equivalent task (MET) is a method of estimating the intensity of physical activity. Every activity has a specific MET value based on its energy requirements. One MET is the amount of energy used while sitting quietly. The product of the MET value of the activity and the amount of time spent performing that activity yields MET-minutes.⁷

Recognizing the pivotal role of physical activity and dietary habits in shaping overall well-being, this research proposal aims to investigate the relationship between physical activity levels and junk food intake among female undergraduate students in Mandya.

This study aimed to describe the levels of physical activity among female undergraduate students and to assess their knowledge, attitude and practice regarding junk food habits.

METHODS

Study design and study population

This cross-sectional study was carried out in Government women’s degree college in Mandya district, South Karnataka between February to March 2023. The study subjects were female undergraduate students.

Inclusion criteria

A purposive sample consisting of all students studying Bachelor of Arts (BA), Bachelor of Commerce (B. Com), or Bachelor of Science (B. Sc) degrees in the colleges and those willing to give informed consent was enumerated and included in the study were included in the study.

Exclusion criteria

Students who were under 18 years of age which is below the legal age for giving consent, those with limitation in their physical functioning and students who are not available even after 3 visits has been excluded from the study.

Data collection tool

Interview method using a pretested questionnaire having parts. The first part will collect general information like Name, age, sex, etc. The second part will collect information of their physical activity using Global physical activity questionnaire (GPAQ). GPAQ is a self-reported questionnaire which had three domains: activities at work, travelling activities and recreational activities.

The energy use of each physical activity domain was calculated as metabolic equivalent (MET)-min/week. There are different levels of physical activity assigned by the GPAQ creators that consist of low, moderate and high physical activity levels.

GPAQ total of greater than or equal to 3000 MET min/week was high category. GPAQ total ranging from 600-2999 MET minutes/week was moderate category. GPAQ total below 600 MET minutes/week was low category.

For the calculation of physical activity, the following MET values are used: 1) Walking MET value = 3.3, 2) Moderate MET value = 4.0 and Vigorous MET value = 8.0.

Total physical activity is calculated by summing up walking, moderate and vigorous MET values. The third part will collect information of their knowledge, attitude and practices regarding junk foods.

Data analysis

All the collected data were entered in a Microsoft Excel sheet and the data was statistically analysed by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Software (IBM- SPSS trial version 22). Descriptive statistics like frequency and proportion for categorical data and mean and standard deviation for continuous data were used.

The chi-square test was used to find the association. A p-value of < 0.05 is considered statistically significant.

RESULTS

A total of 170 students have participated in the study. The majority of them have a moderate level of physical activity 81 (47.6%), while 39 (22.9%) of the students reported that they had high level of physical activity and 50 (29.4%) had low physical activity level (Table 1).

The mean age of respondents was 21.44±2.86 years. The mean time spent in sedentary behavior was about 6 hours and 36 minutes. Among the participants, 12.4% were overweight and 19.4% were obese (Figure 1).

Table 2 shows the knowledge, attitude and practices among the study participants regarding junk foods. 164 (96.5%) of them knew about junk food and 131 (77%) of them were aware of harmful effects of junk food. 99 (58%) of participants felt junk foods as habit forming and 87 (51%) of them consume junk foods due to its taste.

Of 170 participants, 43 (25%) had junk food intake once a week, 46 (27%) had twice a week, 81 (48%) had thrice or more per week (Figure 2).

Among those who were having junk food for thrice or more per week, 37 (46%) had low PA. The association between PA level and junk food was found to be statistically significant (p<0.05) (Table 3).

χ2 =44.142, df = 4, p<0.00

DISCUSSION

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the level of physical activity among female undergraduate students using global physical activity questionnaire (GPAQ) developed by World Health Organization (WHO). In our study physical activity of the participants was calculated in terms of moderate and vigorous intensity in three domains work, travel to and from places and leisure time. At work, 17% of the study participants vigorous intensity and majority 72% were active for moderate intensity, which involved brisk walking between two lecture rooms spaced out in the campus. 68% of the study participants were found to be active in the travel domain. Majority of them used walking as a mode of transport. In leisure time 23% of participants were vigorously active and 50% were moderately active.

The study participants were further divided into low active, moderately active and highly active on the basis of MET minutes. The majority of them have a moderate level of physical activity 81 (47.6%), while 39 (22.9%) of the students reported that they had high level of physical activity and 50 (29.4%) had low physical activity level.

Many studies have been done in adolescents and adults who have shown mixed results about physical activities of moderate and vigorous intensity in various domains. In a study, 53% of adolescents had a moderate level of physical activity (n= 421), while 23% of the students reported that they had high level of physical activity and 24% had low physical activity level. The highest percentage of adolescents were found to consume at least one or the other form of junk food, at least once a week, either in the form of soft drinks or street food or fast food (29.3%). They found a highly statistically significant association (p<0.05) between physical activity level and junk food.⁸

A study done in Bangalore, the prevalence of high levels physical activity among adolescents was found to be 41.3%. 43.2% and 15.4 % of students showed moderate level and low level of physical activity respectively. The average time spent in sitting was 7.06 hrs/day.⁹ Similar study conducted in Pune, found that 26.76% were inactive, maximum 62.53% of the study participants belonged to low physical activity, 10.14% were moderately active and only 0.81% was highly active.¹⁰

It is observed that the high consumption of foods with higher energetic density, rich in fats and refined sugars, is directly associated to the increase of lipogenesis, the secretion of very low-density lipoproteins, and the reduced oxidation and greater accumulation of fatty acids in the tissues and blood.¹¹ A study in Kolkata showed that, most of the study participants (82.02%) had consumed junk food in last 7 days and 10.96% had taken junk food >3 times in last week. Among the participants 22.47% adolescents were in overweight category.

CONCLUSION

This study highlights the pattern of physical activity among female undergraduate students in Mandya and to assess their knowledge, attitude and practice regarding junk food habits. About one third of the participants had low physical activity and one half of participants reported increased frequency of junk food intake i.e., thrice a week or more. Sedentary behaviour seen in these study participants also needs to be altered.

Recommendations

Encouraging regular physical activity, promoting a balanced diet and advising participants to reduce junk food intake for their improved overall health and well-being. Creation of walking paths, cycling paths, parks and similar social activity areas in cities will promote regular physical activity of adolescents. Large scale media campaigns delivering messages on health promotion through physical activity and balanced diet can be done via radio, television, newspaper and social media.

Funding: No funding sources

Conflict of interest: None declared

Ethical approval: The study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee

REFERENCES

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