ASSESSING THE LEVEL OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AMONG SPORTS SCIENCE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS DURING COVID-19 OUTBREAK

Abstract

Physical activity (PA) is associated with numerous health advantages for the heart, body, and mind which lead to prevention of hypokinetic disease. Thus, a good PA level is important and crucial for everyone. However, the occurrence of coronavirus disease (COVID- 19) had severely impaired university student’s PA level, but there is a scanty study on assessing PA level among sports science university students. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to assess the level of PA among Faculty of Sports Science and Recreation (FSR), UiTM Perlis students during COVID-19 outbreak. A total of 142 males and 166 females from FSR, UiTM Perlis were asked to answer the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) created using Google Form. IPAQ estimate the total PA in MET-min/week and time-spent sitting. The mean for PA level of males were 7118.83 ± 5284.864 while females were 6874.73 ± 5357.136. Although the mean for males is slightly higher than females, but there is no significant difference between them (p = 0.689). This probably because both were in the same category which is low PA level. The reason why they achieved the same PA level, probably due to their same background knowledge and exposure to PA during study since they are in Faculty of Sports Science and Recreation. However, they should start finding a practical method to stay active especially during COVID-19 to improve their PA.