Abstract
Background: Knowledge about physically active and healthy lifestyle is one of key factors influencing relationship to physical activity (PA) and to lifetime prevalence of healthy lifestyle in adolescents. Objective: The aim of the study was to identify differences in girls' and boys' knowledge about healthy lifestyle and the strength of the association between the stated weekly physical activity and basic knowledge on healthy lifestyle. Methods: The research involved 14 selected schools in the Katowice region, and 275 girls (15.8 ± 0.9 years) and 220 boys (15.8 ± 0.8 years) participated in the study. The level of knowledge about healthy lifestyle was assessed using the "Comprehensive test on health and physical activity" and the level of weekly physical activity was assessed using the IPAQ - long version, with repeated measurement after six weeks. The associations between knowledge, sex and meeting PA recommendations (at least 3x20 minutes of vigorous and 5x30 min of moderate weekly PA) were analyzed. Results: Girls show better knowledge related to physically active and healthy lifestyle than boys (U = 5.04; p = 0.000; d = 0.493), which was confirmed in a repeated measurement (U = 5.54; p = 0.000; d = 0.505). Statistically and practically significant differences between boys and girls were found in favour of girls in the areas of nutrition, education and also overall. Between knowledge and meeting PA recommendations, no significant associations were found either in boys or girls. The boys declared more weekly PA (in the first measurement 11,386 METs and in the second measurement 11,393 METs on average) than girls (in the first measurement 8,891 METs and in the second measurement 9,992 METs on average). Conclusions: Basic knowledge on healthy lifestyle is not satisfactory with the regard to the curricular requirements (especially in Physical Education and Biology). Deeper knowledge acquisition about healthy lifestyle requires adapting integral interdisciplinary approach and effective connection between knowledge acquisition about physical activity, diet, and other health and preventive measures and girls' and boys' lifestyle.
Highlights
The adoption of healthy lifestyle, positive changes in one’s lifestyle, and maintenance of healthy lifestyle are prompted by adequate knowledge about key aspects of physically active and healthy lifestyle.School has the greatest opportunities and duties to provide the “literacy in healthy lifestyle” regardless of the need to educate in this area on life-long basis
Knowledge acquisition in physical education requires to respect the differences between boys and girls
Between girls who meet recommendations for physical activity (PA) and who do not meet them, no significant differences were found in knowledge related to physically active and healthy lifestyle (TABLE 2)
Summary
School has the greatest opportunities and duties to provide the “literacy in healthy lifestyle” regardless of the need to educate in this area on life-long basis. Physical education is especially irreplaceable in this education and it should complete several roles in this area, integration, putting into context, application, and verification. Physical education should provide “sports education” enhancing regular participation in PA and appropriate life-long leisure time physical activities (Mohr, Townsend, & Pritchard, 2006). Knowledge acquisition in physical education requires to respect the differences between boys and girls. Boys are more physically active than girls (Gavarry, Giacomoni, Bernard, Seymat, & Falgairette, 2003; Sanchez, Norman, Sallis, Calfas, Cella, & Patrick, 2007) and prefer more condition oriented physical activities (Frömel, Formánková, & Sallis, 2002). Knowledge about physically active and healthy lifestyle is one of key factors influencing relationship to physical activity (PA) and to lifetime prevalence of healthy lifestyle in adolescents
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
