Levels of Physical Activity Among Female Students Staying in Hostel of Mumbai

Abstract

Due to lifestyles changes, inactivity and sedentariness are getting more evident even among the younger cohort. In India, the young female usually limit their participation in physical activity (PA) due to cultural and educational perspectives. Furthermore, female students residing in hostels may have added limitation to participate in physical activities, which may increase the risk of diseases and health problems among them. Therefore, the current study was conducted to identify the level of involvement of female Hostel students in daily physical activities, sports and leisure activities. It will also assess the barriers and challenges faced by the students to participate in physical activities. A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 80 female students [undergraduate (n = 40) and post-graduate (n = 40)] staying in Women’s Hostel in Mumbai using a questionnaire technique. The stratified sampling method was used to identify the involvement and non-involvement of students in various types of physical activities according to their education levels. The data was analyzed for descriptive statistics using Excel and SPSS. Mean age of the respondents was 21.02 ± 1.82 (yrs); mean height was 158.61 ± 8.72 (cms); mean weight was 52.46 ± 9.34 (kgs) and BMI was 20.81 ± 3.42. The results revealed that 35% of the respondents did not participate in any type of physical activity; while 33.7% respondents participated in physical activities for 2–3 days/week for more than 60 min/day; whereas hardly few (7.4%) were seen to be physically active for 6–7 day/week. Walking was the most dominant activity with 73% performing it during leisure time and 29% performing it while commuting. Other commonly performed activities were dancing (30%), doing household chores like mopping, vacuuming, sweeping (27.5%) and running or jogging (22.5%). Major obstacles stated for non-involvement in physical activities were lack of company (61%), lack of energy (51%), lack of time (44%), lack of self-discipline (43%), and lack of facilities/space and skills needed to perform activities (38%). Thus, it is clear that involvement in physical activities, especially Sports or Exercise, is very scanty among the young adolescent female students. One needs to look into the barriers in order to increase the participation of this cohort in physical Activity.