Physical activity rates of male and female students from selected European physical education universities.

Introduction. Physical education teachers should promote physical activity that is beneficial to health. It is assumed that physical education students as future physical education teachers will have a high level of physical activity. Aim of Study. The aim of this study was to compare the level of physical activity (PA) in physical education (PE) students from different countries (Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland) using the unified questionnaire (an IPAQ-based questionnaire with questions adapted for this purpose). Material and Methods. The study included a random selection of female and male (f = 131, m = 214) university students majoring in physical education. To measure the PA rate, the International Physical Activity Questionnaire -- Long Form (IPAQ-LF) was used. Differences between the groups were tested with ANOVA. Significance was denoted by p < 0.05. Results. Comparison of intense PA rates shows that the highest results were recorded for men and women studying in the Czech Republic, while the lowest ones were for students from Poland and Germany. Considering the results it was noted that male students have higher PA rates than women. Only female students from Germany had a higher result than their fellow male students from Germany. Analysis of differences in moderate PA undertaken by students showed the highest activity level for both women and men studying in the Netherlands. Conclusions. We observed that nearly all female participants, except for the students from Germany, had a lower level of intense PA than male participants. Identification of the reasons for differences in PA intensity between the sexes might help eliminate the barriers and increase the level of PA in all countries. We observed that social support may have indirectly predicted the PA of students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]