Abstract

The purpose of the study was to relate the levels of physical activity identified in university students with their gender and the academic program to which they belong. The cross-sectional methodology with stratified simple random sampling design without replacement, with a sample size of 329 students, was evaluated by probabilistic surveys using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire short version. The Excel program was used to tabulate the data and the statistical software R-project to obtain BoxPlot graphics and Chi2 test, as well as the correspondence analysis for multivariate data representation. The results were that 65.7% of the students are at a low level, 19.8% on a moderate level, 14.6% in a high level of physical activity. The prevalence of low levels of physical activity in men was 55.6% and in women 70.6%. Statistically, the level of physical activity depends on the student's gender (p <0.05), with women obtaining a lower level of physical activity. The level of physical activity also depends on the undergraduate program that the student studies (p <0.05), acquiring higher levels of physical activity those who study Bachelor of Physical Education. In conclusion, most of the university students are in the margin of sedentarism, with a higher prevalence in women and academic programs with few human movement practices. For this reason, it is suggested to encourage strategies that promote the performance of a regular physical activity, independently of the existence of programs, such as Physiotherapy whose object of study is focused on human movement.

Keywords: Motor Activity; Student; Exercise