A QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF THE LEVEL OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND BODY MASS INDEX (BMI) AMONG TERTIARY STUDENTS IN GHANA: A CASE STUDY OF TAKORADI POLYTECHNIC. (Published)
The study utilised cluster sampling to select participants. Body Mass Index (BMI) for each student was calculated and compared with that of the World Health Organization (W.H.O) Body Mass Index classification. Data were analyzed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Majority (77.3%) of students did not exercise regularly; those who engaged in moderate activities spent less than the two and a half hours required for good health. Over seventy-seven percent were found to have anomalous weight. The mean BMI was normal (24.7kg/m2) for students who exercised regularly, overweight (25.0 kg/m2) for those who exercised occasionally and pre-obese (26.1 kg/m2) for those who refrained from physical activity. It is recommended that all tertiary students in Ghana master in one or two sporting activities and engage in physical activities, they should also be abreast with the requisite time for each activity to benefit fully from physical activity.
Keywords: Physical activity, Polytechnic Education, body mass index, risk of diseases