INTRODUCTION

Reducing the volume of physical activity (PA) causes civilization health problems [1]. Healthy behavior, including adequate PA, is one of the most important factors determining the individual's health. Its support in recent decades has become one of the public health priorities [2], national policy issues as well as EU and UN initiatives.

Healthy behavioral habits are shaped during the whole life. Particularly sensitive in this respect are the early ontogenetic stages of life. Individuals wishing to achieve higher education tend to do so during late adolescence and during early years of adulthood [3]. According to the standards for day-to-day PA, introduced by the World Health Organization, college students can be classified as a group of physically inactive persons with a strong tendency towards a sedentary lifestyle [4]. It is in sharp contrast to their openly declared attitude towards PA [5]. Among the significant changes in their lifestyle following their admission to college, in addition to smoking, higher alcohol intake and worsening eating habits, there is a significant reduction in PA [6]. University years play an important role in the formation of lifestyle patterns [7], and in forming one's attitude towards PA and sport [8,9]. University has the potential to involve large numbers of students in interventions aimed at favorable changes in behavior [10], thus being an important institution of health-promoting policy [11]. From the point of view of PA, female students are a riskier group than males [5,12].

In addition to certain subjective factors, PA is also influenced by environmental factors, such as the form of housing and the available infrastructure around the place of residence [13,14]. The surrounding environment may play an important role as a barrier but also as a support for PA [14,15]. While researching PA in individual population groups, an ecological approach has to be taken into account as well. Frank et al. [16] found that people are more willing to walk and use cycling as a means of transport if they live in cities, where shops and facilities are within accessible distance, compared to rather remote smaller communities. The authors also found correlation between increased PA in adults and related environmental characteristics such as the presence of walkways, public transport, safety, and the like. Research that analyzes PA in relation to the variables city and countryside, indicates certain inconsistency of the results. While some studies have shown the prevalence of higher PA in rural children [17,18,19,20], other works show the opposite trend, i.e. higher levels of PA in urban children and adolescents [21,22,23,24].

Based on the unequivocal knowledge of the relationship between PA and the environment as well as the specificities concerning the university population, and given the lasting possibilities of influencing their healthy lifestyle habits, we set the following goal: We particularly aim to broaden the knowledge about PA carried out by female undergraduates in its relation to selected demographic indicators, i.e. urban versus rural residence, its size in terms of population, and the place of their residence during university studies.

METHODS

Cohort description

The cohort (n=1630) comprised female undergraduates from 5 faculties of Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice (hereinafter UPJŠ) (n=1049) and 8 faculties of the Technical University in Košice (hereinafter TUKE) (n=581) who underwent the diagnostics at the beginning of the winter terms of the academic years 2012/2013 and 2013/2014. The basic characteristics of the cohort are presented in Table 1. For most medical students of UPJŠ (1st year of study) and for all TUKE students, the lessons of Sport Activities during which the measurements took place were compulsory (n=832). Other female students of UPJŠ took up the subject Sport Activities as optional (n=798).

The representation of female students by the individual universities, divided according faculties, is shown in Table 2. For data collection we used a non-standard questionnaire that was part of a questionnaire set. The research was carried out as part of the grant-aided VEGA Project No. 1/1343/12 "Selected risk factors of obesity and its prevention through physical activity" addressed by the Institute of Physical Education and Sport at P.J. Šafárik University (UPJŠ) in Košice. From the original questionnaire, we selected questions related to demographic indicators: place of permanent residence (city/ countryside), size of population in the place of residence and the current place of residence during the university studies.

Pearson's Chi-square Test (χ2) was used to evaluate the relationship between two variables, and Cramer's Association Coefficient (Cramer’s V) and Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient were used to determine the strength of relationship between the variables. We determined statistical significance at p <0.05. SPSS 23 statistics software was used as a means of mathematical statistical processing at the Institute of Medical Informatics of the Faculty of Medicine of UPJŠ in Košice.

Table 1.

Cohort characteristics of female students according years of study.

UPJŠTUKE
First yearUpper yearsFirst yearUpper years
n%n%n%n%
Number73169.731830.332856.525343.5
nSDnSDnSDnSD
Age19.222.1721.713.719.551.1621.121.31
Table 2.

Cohort characteristics of female students by faculties.

UPJŠTUKE
Facultyn%Facultyn%
Medical30128.7BERG*23440.3
Natural Sciences26725.5Economic16127.7
Philosophical28827.5FEI*508.6
Law11110.6Metallurgy5810
Public Administ.686.5Aviation101.7
Not stated141.3Mech. Engineer.203.4
Civil Engineer.488.3
Total1049100%Total581100%

RESULTS

Physical activity of female undergraduates was measured via their weekly frequency of sports activity (SA) and exercise within the past half-year, evaluated by the respondents themselves (Table 3). When studying SA of female students at the two largest universities in Eastern Slovakia, we observed that about 65% of them engage in such activity irregularly, respectively not at all. Approximately 23% of them carry out SA two or more times a week, and 12.5% of the group do sports once a week. The difference between universities relative to the frequency of weekly sports activity is insignificant (Pearson χ2=0.817; df 2; p˃0.05). The results proved that the branch of study is not a factor related to the lifestyle of female undergraduates in the terms of sports and exercise. Table 4 shows data regarding place of residence in terms of city versus countryside. Students with permanent city residence prevail at both universities.

Table 3.

Weekly sports activity, including exercise, of female undergraduates over the last half year.

irregularly or at allregularly 1-times a
week		regularly 1-times a
week		Total
n%n%n%n
UPJŠ67864.6312612.0124523.361049
TUKE37464.377813.4312922.20581
Total105264.4820412.5037423.021630
Table 4.

Place of permanent residence (city/ countryside).

UPJŠTUKEJoint cohort
n%n%n%
City62660.2532055.0794657.98
Countryside42339.7526144.9368442.02
Figure 1.

Sporting activity of TUKE and UPJŠ students in relation to the place of permanent residence (city / rural area).

Even though this number is higher at UPJŠ, it is not significant. When comparing the weekly frequency of SA (Figure 1) between urban and rural students, we observe a difference in favor of higher regularity andfrequency of this activity in urban girls. There is a significant link between these variables. The results show that both regularity and frequency of SA are positively related to residence in urban agglomeration (Pearson χ2=9.167; df 2; p≤0.01).

Considering the fact that most girl undergraduates studying at both universities reside in towns, we examined the number of residents in their hometown and its association with SA and exercises. Most UPJŠ undergraduates come from a big city, i.e. with a population of over 100,000 (Table 5). Ranking second at this university are students from small municipalities up to 1,000 inhabitants. The smallest group comes from medium-sized towns of 50,000 to 100,000 inhabitants. A completely different situation is at TUKE, where most girls are from medium-sized towns and small villages and only a small proportion from a city with over 100,000 inhabitants, where they are currently studying, i.e. directly from Kosice.

Our results prove that girls residing in small villages of up to 1,000 inhabitants are least involved in SA or do sports only irregularly (Fig. 2). They further reported the lowest rate of PA at 3-times a week, which is a recommended health indicator for exercise and sports. The results did not prove any significant correlation between the weekly frequency of SA and the number of inhabitants in the place of permanent residence in the joint cohort of both universities (Spearman R=0.060).

Table 5.

Stratification of the cohort according the number of residents in the place of permanent residence.

Number of residentsUPJŠTUKEJoint cohort
n%n%N%
0-100023322.215126.038423.6
1 001-5 00021220.211619.932820.1
5 001-10 000959.06210.71579.6
10 001-50 00020519.66711.527216.7
50 001-100 000595.515526.721413.1
over 100 00024523.5305.227516.9
Total10491005811001630100
Figure. 2.

Sporting activity of female students in relation to the number of inhabitants at the place of their permanent residence.

As shown in Table 6, a comparable percentage of female undergraduates at the two largest universities in Eastern Slovakia reside at home during their study (joint cohort 47.4%) versus stay at hostels (joint cohort 43.2%). A much lower proportion of girls rent a flat (a joint cohort 9.5%), which was an expected result due to low financial sufficiency of this social group, the cost-effective provision of dormitories in the city of Kosice, their availability and a convenient distance from the university. No correlation has been found between the variables place of residence during the study and the realization of SA. The difference in SA relative to the place of residence is minimal (Pearson χ2=5.961; p>0.05) (Figure 3).

Table 6.

Place of current residence during study.

UPJŠTUKEJoint cohort
n%n%n%
Home46244.0431053.477247.36
Dormitory46544.3323941.170443.19
Rent a flat12211.63325.51549.45
Total10491005811001630100
Figure 3.

Sporting activity of female students in relation to their place of residence during studies.

DISCUSSION

The academic environment ought to support the physical activity of university students as they represent an important segment of the educated adult population. At this stage of their life, students are no longer dependent on their parents regarding own lifestyle compared to their previous years, so they should bear greater responsibility for their own health behavior. Our results related to doing sports and exercise, in terms of its regularity and frequency, are not favorable for female undergraduates. Only one quarter of the study group meet the health-related criteria for practising SA with a frequency of 3-times a week. This number also includes those students who exercise twice a week. Much more positive results were observed by Helmer et al. [25]. The authors studied college students in Germany and found passivity in only 27.1% of students. However, PA less than once a week was reported by more than 40% of them. Similarly, Nykodým et al. [26], applying an IPAQ questionnaire, found that 32.7% of Czech female undergraduates did not perform any intensive PA at the time of the research, and 9.3% of them did not even perform any medium-load PA. Similarly, Radu et al. [27] who studied PA and the active lifestyle of Romanian students reported a sedentary lifestyle in 34.7% of them. The lowest percentage (4.6%) of undergraduates who do not do any sport was reported by Gajdošik & Balas [9] at Charles University Medical School in Prague. Given that the female students from our research at UPJŠ are studying mainly humanities and natural sciences, more favorable results regarding SA were expected by them particularly. A certain parallel can be observed in the research by Kimáková et al. [28], which did not demonstrate differences in health risk behavior among students of medical versus non-medical fields of study. University students in general report lower levels of physical activity, which influences the body weight and body composition, and leads to a consequent acceptance of such condition [29]. Sparling & Snow [30] observed that as many as 81.3% of undergraduates who were physically inactive during their study tend to lead a sedentary lifestyle even after graduating. Despite the considerable awareness of undergraduates about the significant impact of sports activities on the body, the constantly changing regime of the day and study duties place increased demand on the amount and utilization of leisure time. Among others, those are the reasons why sporting activity is often ranking last in the hierarchy of students' interests [31].

Significant relationship between the place of permanent residence and the regularity and weekly frequency of SA was found to the benefit of urban girl students. This can be explained by the fact that in Slovakia there are still better conditions for sports in terms of available facilities, infrastructure designed for its implementation and programs on offer within organized forms of SA. Sports, unlike general PA, require more specific conditions. Implicitly, our results have an affinity with the findings of Duncan et al. and Salis et al. on the importance of supportive environment in the implementation of PA. To reinforce the aforementioned, lower volumes of PA by rural population in the studies by Martin et al. [32] and Parks et al. [23], are attributed to a different lifestyle and the previously poorly examined impact of the socio-economic status. Given that our results are not supplemented by data in the wider context of conditions for SA, such substantive interpretation is rather deductive. However, according to our results, the number of inhabitants in their place of permanent residence is not related to the frequency and regularity of SA. On the other hand, we found certain tendency upwards in the same variables of SA in girl students from bigger cities of over 50,000 inhabitants. Paradoxically, Mitáš & Frömel [33], examining a sample of 8,256 adults in the Czech Republic, found a higher weekly volume of physical activity among respondents from smaller agglomerations. Frömel et al. [34] pointed out relationship between the place of residence, the form of housing and PA of the adult population in a selected region of Bohemia. According their results, physically most active appeared the inhabitants of agglomerations with a population of 1,000 to 29,900 inhabitants, while the least active were the inhabitants of the city of Olomouc, which counts about 100,000 inhabitants. Similar results in the adult population of a region in the Czech Republic were reported by Řepka et al. [35], stating that the inhabitants of smaller towns and municipalities have a greater chance of meeting the recommended volume of weekly PA. However, the above studies did not concern the specific social group of undergraduates. It also makes a difference whether we take into account the assessment and factors of performing PA as such or its particular forms, namely sport and exercise.

One of the external factors that could affect SA by female undergraduates is the place of their current stay during university studies. According to LaCaille et al. [36], numerous studies present changes in behavior after admission to college, typically associated with staying at student halls of residence. In most cases, it lies in a negative impact of the study, especially in the early years. This further results in an increase in body weight at the beginning of university study [37]. On the other hand, with an increase in PA sedentary behaviour is supressed, whereas determinants of sedentary behavior in university students may well be the place of residence, lifestyle, exams, and pressure caused by academic duties [38]. In the research by Bernasovská et al. [39], medical faculty undergraduates residing at home reported healthier dietary habits than those accommodated at dormitories, although they smoked more. Our results regarding the location of stay during university studies indicate a favorable weekly frequency of SA by those staying home, but this relationship is not significant. This finding corresponds with the work of Wallmann-Sperlich et al. [40] on low socio-demographic correlates. As the authors assert, it is generally necessary to address studies focused on further definition of the true causal relationship between PA and the environment. In solving the problem of insufficient implementation of PA as well as SA, the ecological model of research, taking into account both the human and the environment, has its justification as well.

CONCLUSION

The results of our research, carried out on a sample of female undergraduates at the two largest universities in Eastern Slovakia, draw our attention to a markedly low rate of doing sports and exercise. We observed a significant correlation between the frequency of sporting activity by the students and the place of their permanent residence, which is more favorable for city dwellers against rural areas. Paradoxically, in terms of SA there is no significant link between the number of inhabitants at the places of residence, although we can see certain positive tendency in favour of agglomerations with a population of over 50,000. The factor of residence during university studies has proven to be insignificant in relation to the frequency and regularity of sports and exercise. Based on the results obtained, we would like to point to the legitimacy of ecological approach to tackling the problem of physical activity, namely doing sports and exercise. We firmly recommend paying more attention to objective factors related to the realization of physical activity by university students, addressing the issue of barriers in relation to sport activities, but first and foremost to seeking tools of remedies or their elimination. Especially, that regular physical activity helps improve overall health and fitness, and reduces your risk for many chronic diseases because affects the immune system [41,42]. We further confirm, similar to [11], the need to reintroduce the subject of Sports Activities into the syllabus of study programs at universities, at least in the first level university degrees. This period is the last time we can institutionally influence the attitudes of college and university students in relation to a healthy lifestyle. This issue needs to be addressed clearly within the health promotion policy of the responsible ministries, the management of the universities, and consequently reflected in their mutual coordination.

Footnotes

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