Health Care : Current Reviews

Does physical activity level affect physical and mental health in young adult students?

Euro Health Care and Fitness Summit

September 01-03, 2015 Valencia, Spain

Kyung-Sook Bang

Seoul National University, South Korea

Posters-Accepted Abstracts: Health Care: Current Reviews

Abstract:

In Korea, it is known that many young adult college students are suffered from physical inactivity, high level of stress and depression. However, how lack of physical activity level and health-related behavior affect their health was not sufficiently reported. This study was performed to identify whether physical activity level affects physiological, psychological variables in these ages. Data were collected in February and March, 2015 from 99 undergraduate and graduate students in one university. The participants were assessed for body composition analysis, blood pressure, bone mineral density, heart rate variability (HRV) and blood analysis at the university health care center. Also, physical activity level, health promoting behavior, and depression were measured using self-report questionnaire. In the results, the physical activity level showed significant correlations with Vitamin D (r=0.233, p=0.021), and muscle amount in body composition (r=0.243, p=0.015). However, percentage of body fat did not show significant relations with physical activity level (r=-0.157). In Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis, we found significant correlations of physical activity with mean heart rate (r=-0.331, p=0.001), parasympathetic activation (r=0.209, p=0.038), stress resistance (r=0.233, p=0.020). In addition, physical activity level showed significant negative correlation with depression (r=-0.263, p=0.008) and positive correlation with health promoting behavior (r=0.388, p<0.001). In conclusion, the physical activity level showed significant relationships with health status and health promoting behavior of college students. Strategies for improving physical activity and health promoting behavior for young adult college students need to be developed.

Biography :

Kyung-Sook Bang has completed her PhD in 2000 from Seoul National University. She is a faculty member of the Seoul National University College of Nursing. She has published many research papers in reputed journals, and has been actively participating as an Editorial Board Member and Committee Member in various academic associations.

Email: ksbang@snu.ac.kr