Effect of a Health-Based-Physical Activity Intervention on University Students’ Physically Active Behaviors and Perception

As part of their mission to educate students holistically, colleges and universities are expected to provide resources to help students avoid unhealthy lifestyle choices like sedentary living. In this regard, research indicates that sedentary lifestyle behaviours have been linked to various adverse physiological health outcomes. In this study, a health-based intervention was designed to encourage female college students to be physically active (PA) on a regular basis. The BMI, PBF, body image, and exercise self-efficacy were all studied. Using a pre-test-post-test experimental design, 157 female university students, out of 192 enrolled in five sections of a physical fitness and wellness course, voluntarily participated in a 12-week brisk-walking intervention. Tanita BC-420 MA, Body-Image Measure, and Exercise Scale were used to collect data at the beginning and end of the intervention during the fall of 2018 related to physically active adherence, BMI, PBF, body image, and exercise self-efficacy. The results of the current study showed that the strategy pursued with university students contributed to increasing levels of physical activity, reducing body weight, and reducing body fat in all study variables, while there was no change between the pre- and post-tests in the body image variable.