IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v10y2013i8p3502-3517d27890.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Female University Students’ Physical Activity Levels and Associated Factors—A Cross-Sectional Study in Southwestern Saudi Arabia

Author

Listed:
  • Atika Khalaf

    (The PRO-CARE Group, School of Health and Society, Kristianstad University, SE-291 88 Kristianstad, Sweden
    Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institute, SE-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden)

  • Örjan Ekblom

    (Åstrand Laboratory of Work Physiology, The Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, SE-114 86 Stockholm, Sweden)

  • Jan Kowalski

    (National Childhood Obesity Center, Departments of Pediatrics and of Clinical Science, Intervention, and Technology, Karolinska University Hospital, Karolinska Institute, SE-141 86 Stockholm, Sweden)

  • Vanja Berggren

    (Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institute, SE-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden
    Department of Health Sciences, Medical Faculty, Lund University, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden)

  • Albert Westergren

    (The PRO-CARE Group, School of Health and Society, Kristianstad University, SE-291 88 Kristianstad, Sweden)

  • Hazzaa Al-Hazzaa

    (Pediatric Exercise Physiology Research Laboratory, College of Education and Obesity Research Chair, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia)

Abstract

Background : The high prevalence of physical inactivity in Saudi Arabia is a growing challenge to public health. This study aimed to examine the prevalence of physical activity (PA) and associated factors among female university students. Methods : This cross-sectional study involved 663 randomly selected female university students who completed the Arab Teens Life Style questionnaire. Data included measurements of anthropometric, socioeconomic and environmental factors, as well as self-reported PA. Ordinal regression was used to identify associated factors with low, moderate and high PA levels. Results : The mean age of participants was 20.4 years (SD 1.5). Mean BMI of the students in relation to PA were 23.0, 22.9, 22.1 for high, moderate and low levels of activity, respectively. The analysis revealed significantly higher PA levels among married students, those with high educated mothers, and those who lived far from parks, and lower activity levels among underweight students. Conclusions : This study raises four important determinants for female university students’ PA levels. These factors could be of great importance in the endeavor to prevent the health-threatening increase in physical inactivity patterns and thus non-communicable diseases and obesity where the focus should be on the specific situation and needs of women in Saudi Arabia.

Suggested Citation

  • Atika Khalaf & Örjan Ekblom & Jan Kowalski & Vanja Berggren & Albert Westergren & Hazzaa Al-Hazzaa, 2013. "Female University Students’ Physical Activity Levels and Associated Factors—A Cross-Sectional Study in Southwestern Saudi Arabia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-16, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:10:y:2013:i:8:p:3502-3517:d:27890
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/10/8/3502/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/10/8/3502/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Verónica Varela-Mato & José M. Cancela & Carlos Ayan & Vicente Martín & Antonio Molina, 2012. "Lifestyle and Health among Spanish University Students: Differences by Gender and Academic Discipline," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-14, August.
    2. Yahya Al-Nakeeb & Mark Lyons & Peter Collins & Anwar Al-Nuaim & Hazzaa Al-Hazzaa & Michael J. Duncan & Alan Nevill, 2012. "Obesity, Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior Amongst British and Saudi Youth: A Cross-Cultural Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-17, April.
    3. Hazzaa M. Al-Hazzaa & Hana I. Al-Sobayel & Abdulrahman O. Musaiger, 2011. "Convergent Validity of the Arab Teens Lifestyle Study (ATLS) Physical Activity Questionnaire," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-11, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shanchita R. Khan & Riaz Uddin & Sandra Mandic & Asaduzzaman Khan, 2020. "Parental and Peer Support are Associated with Physical Activity in Adolescents: Evidence from 74 Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-11, June.
    2. Naif Albujulaya & Clare Stevinson, 2023. "Exercise Promotion in Saudi Arabia: Understanding Personal, Environmental, and Social Determinants of Physical Activity Participation and Well-Being," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-13, February.
    3. Anwar Al-Nuaim & Ayazullah Safi, 2023. "Factors Influencing Saudi Youth Physical Activity Participation: A Qualitative Study Based on the Social Ecological Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(10), pages 1-15, May.
    4. Sonia Chaabane & Karima Chaabna & Sathyanarayanan Doraiswamy & Ravinder Mamtani & Sohaila Cheema, 2021. "Barriers and Facilitators Associated with Physical Activity in the Middle East and North Africa Region: A Systematic Overview," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-21, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hazzaa M. Al-Hazzaa & Yahya Al-Nakeeb & Michael J. Duncan & Hana I. Al-Sobayel & Nada A. Abahussain & Abdulrahman O. Musaiger & Mark Lyons & Peter Collins & Alan Nevill, 2013. "A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Health Behaviors between Saudi and British Adolescents Living in Urban Areas: Gender by Country Analyses," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-20, December.
    2. Abdelhamid Kerkadi & Abdelmonem H. Sadig & Hiba Bawadi & Al Anoud Mohammed Al Thani & Walaa Al Chetachi & Hammad Akram & Hazzaa M. Al-Hazzaa & Abdulrahman O. Musaiger, 2019. "The Relationship between Lifestyle Factors and Obesity Indices among Adolescents in Qatar," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-15, November.
    3. Juan Jose Crespo-Salgado & Alicia Blanco-Moure, 2013. "Comments on Varela-Mato, V.; Cancela, J.M.; Ayan, C.; Martín, V.; Molina, A. Lifestyle and Health among Spanish University Students: Differences by Gender and Academic Discipline. Int. J. Environ. Res," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-2, August.
    4. Elena-Simona Indreica & Georgian Badicu & Hadi Nobari, 2022. "Exploring the Correlation between Time Management, the Mediterranean Diet, and Physical Activity: A Comparative Study between Spanish and Romanian University Students," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-16, February.
    5. Georgina Mayela Núñez-Rocha & Cynthia Karyna López-Botello & Ana María Salinas-Martínez & Hiram V. Arroyo-Acevedo & Rebeca Thelma Martínez-Villarreal & María Natividad Ávila-Ortiz, 2020. "Lifestyle, Quality of Life, and Health Promotion Needs in Mexican University Students: Important Differences by Sex and Academic Discipline," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-12, October.
    6. Nada M. Albawardi & Hoda Jradi & Abdulla A. Almalki & Hazzaa M. Al-Hazzaa, 2017. "Level of Sedentary Behavior and Its Associated Factors among Saudi Women Working in Office-Based Jobs in Saudi Arabia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-13, June.
    7. Adel A. Alhusaini & Ganeswara Rao Melam & Syamala Buragadda, 2020. "Cross-Cultural Variation in BMI, Sedentary Behavior, and Physical Activity in International School Girls Residing in Saudi Arabia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(6), pages 1-9, March.
    8. Patricia C. García-Suárez & Iván Rentería & Priscilla García Wong-Avilés & Fernanda Franco-Redona & Luis M. Gómez-Miranda & Jorge A. Aburto-Corona & Eric P. Plaisance & José Moncada-Jiménez & Alberto , 2020. "Hemodynamic Adaptations Induced by Short-Term Run Interval Training in College Students," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-11, June.
    9. Laura Delgado-Lobete & Rebeca Montes-Montes & Alba Vila-Paz & José-Manuel Cruz-Valiño & Berta Gándara-Gafo & Miguel-Ángel Talavera-Valverde & Sergio Santos-del-Riego, 2020. "Individual and Environmental Factors Associated with Tobacco Smoking, Alcohol Abuse and Illegal Drug Consumption in University Students: A Mediating Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-16, April.
    10. Yahya Al-Nakeeb & Mark Lyons & Lorna J. Dodd & Anwar Al-Nuaim, 2015. "An Investigation into the Lifestyle, Health Habits and Risk Factors of Young Adults," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-15, April.
    11. Miquel Pans & Joan Úbeda-Colomer & Javier Monforte & José Devís-Devís, 2021. "Physical Activity and Accomplishment of Recommendations in University Students with Disabilities: A Longitudinal Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-11, May.
    12. Cristina Corella & Javier Zaragoza & José Antonio Julián & Víctor Hugo Rodríguez-Ontiveros & Carlos Tomás Medrano & Inmaculada Plaza & Alberto Abarca-Sos, 2019. "Improving Physical Activity Levels and Psychological Variables on University Students in the Contemplation Stage," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-13, November.
    13. Andrea Bickerdike & Joan Dinneen & Cian O’Neill, 2019. "‘A Healthy CIT’: An Investigation into Student Health Metrics, Lifestyle Behaviours and the Predictors of Positive Mental Health in an Irish Higher Education Setting," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-22, November.
    14. Manuel Pulido-Martos & Daniel Cortés-Denia & Juan José de la Rosa-Blanca & Esther Lopez-Zafra, 2020. "The Shirom-Melamed Vigor Measure for Students: Factorial Analysis and Construct Validity in Spanish Undergraduate University Students," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(24), pages 1-13, December.
    15. Ramón Chacón-Cuberos & Félix Zurita-Ortega & Eva María Olmedo-Moreno & Rosario Padial-Ruz & Manuel Castro-Sánchez, 2018. "An Exploratory Model of Psychosocial Factors and Healthy Habits in University Students of Physical Education Depending on Gender," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-14, November.
    16. Jorge Acebes-Sánchez & Ignacio Diez-Vega & Gabriel Rodriguez-Romo, 2019. "Physical Activity among Spanish Undergraduate Students: A Descriptive Correlational Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(15), pages 1-13, August.
    17. Sonia Chaabane & Karima Chaabna & Sathyanarayanan Doraiswamy & Ravinder Mamtani & Sohaila Cheema, 2021. "Barriers and Facilitators Associated with Physical Activity in the Middle East and North Africa Region: A Systematic Overview," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-21, February.
    18. Esraa Burahmah & Sivaramkumar Shanmugam & Ben Stansfield, 2023. "Full-Day Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Levels of Typically Developing Children and Adolescents in the Middle East: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(20), pages 1-29, October.
    19. Yahya Al-Nakeeb & Mark Lyons & Peter Collins & Anwar Al-Nuaim & Hazzaa Al-Hazzaa & Michael J. Duncan & Alan Nevill, 2012. "Obesity, Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior Amongst British and Saudi Youth: A Cross-Cultural Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-17, April.
    20. Omar J. Baqal & Hassan Saleheen & Fadia S. AlBuhairan, 2020. "Urgent Need for Adolescent Physical Activity Policies and Promotion: Lessons from “Jeeluna”," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-12, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:10:y:2013:i:8:p:3502-3517:d:27890. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.