Publication:

Level of physical activities among engineering students: a cross-sectional study

Background Physical activity refers to any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that requires energy expenditure. Literacy rate of Kerala is 94%. Engineering courses account to 30 to 40% of total professional courses offered in Kerala. As engineering field continues to evolve, competition among students for achieving higher grades to reach a profession of their dreams have deviated the students from being physically fit. Being physically inactive and leading a sedentary life style are the risk factor of non-communicable disease.

Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted at various 4 Engineering colleges in Trivandrum. 310 Engineering students aged 18 to 30 years were recruited for the study through convivence sampling. A semi structured questionnaire containing sociodemographic and SF-IPAQ questionnaire were prepared in Kobo tool box were used to collect data. Data was analysed using SPSS software 29.

Results Among 310 study participants 95 (31%) were having low physical activity, 206 (66%) were having moderate physical activity and 9 (3%) were having high level of physical activity. The association between age with the level of physical activity were found to be statistically significant. Similarly, presence of non-communicable disease, doctors advise to reduce weight, counting of footsteps had a significant association with the level of physical activity.

Conclusions The level of physical activity decreased as age increases. This could be because of more academic pressure and career development.