Physical activity and Body-Mass-Index relation in secondary-school students of the Visegrad region

Abstract

Background: One of the greatest problems of the contemporary society is obesity that manifests itself across all age categories. It is, however, in a direct contradiction to the increase of scientifically proven effects of physical activity (hereinafter referred to as ‘PA’) on the reduction and elimination of obesity. The question to be asked is: What is the impact of PA on BMI of the monitored study participants? Objective: The objective of our research was to analyse the relationship between physical activity (PA) and the body mass index (BMI) of 15 – 17-yearsold secondary-school students in four countries of the Visegrad group (V4). Material and method: The research was conducted in 2015 and the research sample concerned 2,499 students. Due to incomplete data, or, errors in answers, the statistic processing of the data included only 2,140 students, out of which 880 boys (41 %) and 1,260 girls (58.9 %). The information was gathered by means of an extended version of standardised International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). The questionnaires were filled online while at school using the INDARES internet-based system. For the statistical processing of data, we used the methods of ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, Kruskal-Wallis Test, and Mann Whitney U Test. Results: The achieved results confirmed significant differences in engaging in PA on the part of boys (p=0.01). There are also differences between grades, and in boys also in different forms of strain; in girls only in the overall volume of PA (0.01). In the context of individual countries, significant differences exist in both boys and girls equally. Pupils from the Slovak Republic report the highest levels of PA, while those form Hungary report the lowest PA (p=0.01). When evaluating overall BMI as well as BMI in individual countries, the difference between genders has been confirmed to the boys’ disadvantage (p=0.01). This statement also applies to comparison of individual countries, where the Czech students have the highest BMI and the Slovak students the lowest. Conclusion: Overall, as well as in terms of specific grades, boys are more physically active than girls. In all cases, they also have higher BMI. No significant relation has been proven between the volume and intensity of PA and BMI in both genders.