Högskolan i Skövde

his.sePublications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • apa-cv
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Is achieving the guidelines of four forms of physical activity associated with less self-reported health complaints?: Cross-sectional study of undergraduates at the University of Turku, Finland
University of Skövde, School of Health Sciences. University of Skövde, Digital Health Research (DHEAR). Department of Surgery, Hamad General Hospital, Doha, Qatar / College of Medicine, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar. (Individ och samhälle VIDSOC, Individual and Society)ORCID iD: 0000-0003-0961-1302
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, King Fahad Specialist Hospital, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
2020 (English)In: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, ISSN 1661-7827, E-ISSN 1660-4601, Vol. 17, no 15, p. 1-19, article id 5595Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Very little research has assessed the physical activity (PA) of university students in in Finland, and their associations with self-reported health complaints (HCs), whilst simultaneously accounting for a range of other potential confounders. Students at the University of Turku (1177) completed an online health and wellbeing questionnaire that assessed 22 physical and somatic HCs, and students’ achievement of the international guidelines of four forms of PA (moderate, vigorous, moderate-to-vigorous and muscle strengthening PA; MPA, VPA, MVPA, MSPA respectively). We also explored the associations between HCs and PA, controlling for sociodemographic and health confounders (age, sex, year of study, marital status, accommodation during semesters, health awareness). Factor analysis reduced the HCs into three factors (psychological, pains/aches, circulatory/breathing). Bivariate relationships (no controlling for confounders) between these 3 factors and four forms of PA guideline achievement showed significant effects of achieving the PA guidelines against various groups of HCs, where more strenuous PA was associated with significantly less HCs in a step-ladder pattern. Multiple regression analyses (controlling for confounders) showed that achievement of PA guidelines was significantly independently associated with self-reported HCs scores in most cases. Psychological HCs were negatively associated with achieving any type of PA; pains/aches were negatively associated with achieving two types of PA or with achieving MSPA guidelines; and circulatory/breathing HCs were negatively associated with achieving the VPA guidelines only. This is the first study in Finland to examine such relationships, and highlights the critical role of PA for the health of these young adults. Programs and policies to strengthen and improve the PA of university students would be beneficial, recognizing the benefits of instilling life-long PA habits among this group of young adults.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
MDPI, 2020. Vol. 17, no 15, p. 1-19, article id 5595
Keywords [en]
Finland, Physical activity, Psychosomatic symptoms, Self-reported symptoms/health complaints, University students
National Category
Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology
Research subject
Individual and Society VIDSOC
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:his:diva-18909DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17155595ISI: 000559022900001PubMedID: 32756425Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85089120755OAI: oai:DiVA.org:his-18909DiVA, id: diva2:1457846
Available from: 2020-08-13 Created: 2020-08-13 Last updated: 2020-11-05Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(538 kB)151 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 538 kBChecksum SHA-512
dcf95f65faedbaf92527c4bf2c08db7159242b32a613d511bce916f65be0d0ec6bac73f1a55ec8eb7bae44f05aa3f47118e0ab321f449f92cc181b3b02aa5ad1
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Other links

Publisher's full textPubMedScopus

Authority records

El Ansari, Walid

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
El Ansari, Walid
By organisation
School of Health SciencesDigital Health Research (DHEAR)
In the same journal
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 151 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

doi
pubmed
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
pubmed
urn-nbn
Total: 169 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • apa-cv
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf