Balneo Research Journal (Dec 2017)
Differences regarding health risk behaviours between sport club participants and non-participants among Romanian high school students - Review
Abstract
This study focused on assessment of health risk behaviours among Romanian high school boys from Cluj-Napoca, Romania and to the best of our knowledge is the first Romanian study which makes a clear distinction between three categories of participants: high school boys involved in intense sport training and competition (football players), high school boys participating at least once per week in a sport club (sport club participants) and the male high school students who do not do participate at least once per week in a club sport (sport club non-participants). A cross sectional study was performed among 113 male high school students aged 15-18 from grades IX-XI of three high schools from Cluj-Napoca (31sport club participants, 82 sport club non-participants) as well as among 40 male high school students 15 to 18 years old, participating in a competition football club from the city (football players). Health risk behaviours were assessed through means of anonymous questionnaires. The results show that both football players and sport club participants had statistically significant more involvement in physical activity and better nutritional habits when comparing with sport club non-participants- they had the tendency to eat more frequent the breakfast, fruits and vegetables, while eating less frequent sweets. With regard to smoking and alcohol use as well as violence related behaviour, no significant differences were found between sport club participants and non-participants, while football players behaved differently than the other two groups with regard to several issues; smoking, electronic cigarette use and alcohol use were less frequent among football players, but they were more frequent exposed to verbal aggression as well as to offended messages sent by phone or social media platforms. This article presents an exploratory study which shows several differences with regard to health risk behaviours of Romanian high school boys based on their involvement in different types of sport training, offering information for guiding future research and health education in this field.
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