The University Faculty Physical Activity Inventory (UFPAI): A Preliminary Assessment of Physical Activity among Faculty at a Private University

Abstract

Physical activity (PA) is decreasing, with the work environment being particularly influential on reduction in PA. However, physically active lifestyles meeting or exceeding 150 minutes/week have been linked to reductions in multiple deleterious chronic health conditions. University educators are inundated with University work as well as promotional challenges that may act as barriers to achieving recommended daily levels of PA. Currently, very few research studies have evaluated PA among University faculty. Thus, the purpose of this exploratory investigation was to evaluate self-reported levels of PA among faculty members at Biola University. Eligible survey respondents (N = 138) were men (n = 72, 48.7 ± 11.7 years of age, 179.3 ± 8.5 centimeters in height, 86.3 ± 16.1 kilograms in weight, and an average body mass index (BMI) of 26.8 ± 4.6 kg/m2) and women (n = 66, 44.8 ± 11.7 years of age, 166.2 ± 8.2 centimeters in height, 69.3 ± 13.2 kilograms in weight, and an average body mass index (BMI) of 25.1 ± 4.8 kg/m2) faculty members from Biola University. Participants completed the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), using the SurveyMonkey® platform. Total daily sitting time and metabolic equivalent (MET) minute activity-specific (leisure, household, occupational, and transport) were calculated. One way ANOVAs revealed significant (p = 0.02) main effects for job title and total minutes of PA per week. The post-hoc analysis revealed that adjuncts were significantly more physically active than full professors. Although the only statistically significant differences were between adjuncts and full professors, we observed a downward trend in median physical activity. Independent measures t-tests revealed a significant (p = 0.004) difference between men and women for total minutes of PA per week. Women were significantly more physically active than men. Only 5.1% of faculty reported below 150 min of cumulative PA within a week. Total median PA for faculty was 3,133.5 MET*min/week. 52.9% of faculty reported a high categorical score above 3,000.0 MET*min/week of activity with a median of 4,757.0 MET*min/week. Of the four domains, leisure activity had the greatest median at 1,169.5 MET*min/week and active transport had the least at 462.0 MET*min/week. Faculty surveyed in this study exceeded the ACSM minimum weekly recommendations for PA and lower faculty ranks were the most active.