Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare (Jul 2022)

Is It Important to Increase Physical Activity Among University Students During the Second-Wave COVID-19 Pandemic in Asian Countries? A Cross-Sectional Study of the Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices in Asian Countries

  • Sari DK,
  • Mani S,
  • Fadli M,
  • Ihksan R,
  • Machrina Y,
  • Arrasyid NK,
  • Siregar KB,
  • Sunarno A

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 15
pp. 1559 – 1571

Abstract

Read online

Dina Keumala Sari,1 Suresh Mani,2 Muhammad Fadli,3 Riyadh Ihksan,4 Yetty Machrina,5 Nurfida Khairina Arrasyid,6 Kamal Basri Siregar,7 Agung Sunarno8 1Department of Nutrition, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia; 2Department of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Applied Medical Science, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab, India; 3Medical Education and Professional Program, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia; 4Department of Science and Technology, North Sumatra Branch-National Sport Committee, Medan, Indonesia; 5Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia; 6Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia; 7Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia; 8Department of Sport, Faculty of Sport Science, Universitas Medan Area, Medan, IndonesiaCorrespondence: Dina Keumala Sari, Email [email protected]: Difficulties in exercising have occurred for the entire world’s population during this COVID-19 pandemic, especially in the second wave at the end of 2021. Most worrying is the lack of physical activity in young adults, as lack of exercise will increase the risk of noncommunicable diseases in the future. The youth such as university student can be agents of change, to increase physical activity, from sedentary to sport life. This study aimed to determine the relationship between knowledge, attitudes, and actions of university students and the correlation between the related variables.Methods: This study is a cross-sectional observational study involving 458 Asian university students based on Asian and African nationalities. This research was conducted from December 2021 to January 2022, during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Asia. The variables studied were the knowledge, attitudes, and actions of university students with regard to sports, and the statistical test used was the Chi-squared test.Results: The results showed that the research subjects were mainly from Indonesia and India (95.8%), there were more women than men (69.9% vs 30.1%), the most common age range was 18– 20 years (61.4%), and 45.4% had a normal body mass index. In total, 48.3% had high knowledge, 93.4% had a positive attitude, and 34.7% had good practice. There was a significant relationship between knowledge and attitude (p=0.002) but not with action.Conclusion: This study found that good knowledge was associated with a good attitude, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic with activity restrictions on university students, there was no relationship with action.Keywords: athlete, exercise, physical activity, understand, youth

Keywords