Abstract

Introduction: The physical activities have changed and decreased as the technological improvements increase. Physical inactivity is one of the most important public health problems in the last several decades.
Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study is conducted in the 1. grade students of Kaya Bayazıtoğlu High School by using “Physical Activity Questionnnaire Form” under observation in April 2003. Participation rate is 95.8 %. SPSS 11.0 version (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) statistical programme was used for entrance and analysis of the data.
Results: 50,4% of the participants were female and 49,6% were male. Mean age was 15,21 ± 0,59. The mean of the energy spent by the participants was 1779,67 ± 2539.86 kilocalories/day and the the mean MET/week spent by the physical activities was 47,32 ± 68,08. In conclusion 26,0 % of the participants were found to be sedentary. 35,7 % of the females and 16,2 % of the males were sedentary. The energy spent by the males by physical activity weekly was statisticaly higher than that of the females (2 = 11,615, p = 0,001). Also the energy spent by the licenced sportsmen weekly by physical activity was statisticaly higher than that of the students who are not sportsmen (Fisher Exact, p = 0,037)
Conclusions and recommendation: The physical activity of the participants was found to be low. Health and educational associations, schools and municipalities have to colloborate in increasing the physical activity of this age group.

Key words: Physical activity, MET, students

Article Language: Turkish English