FUNCTIONAL STATUS OF FEMALE MEDICAL STUDENTS

Abstract

Functional status is one of the significant indicators for the physical activity assessment. This research study evidenced to be very effective and productive in this perspective. It is worldwide estimated that physical inactivity is considered as the 4th major threats for death. It is also one of the contributing aspects in the development of many infectious diseases such as diabetes mellitus, cancer and heart diseases. This study was conducted to find out the functional level of physical activity among female medical students. A standard questionnaire of American academy of family physicians was implemented. The sample size was estimated by WHO software of EPI . Data was collected within the premises of Dow University of health sciences and analyzed through SPSS 16 version. In this research the association of common reported vigorous and moderate activities within last 3 months was evaluated. The relation of moderate and vigorous activities regarding health complains was also established. The statistics revealed that the females are less likely to participate in the high level of physical activities. Even though, females who participated in some of the moderate physical activities, did not indulge in recommended time of physical activity per week i.e. 150 mints/week. On the other hand, very few of the female students reported that they take part in vigorous activities. The overall mean age of the participants was (20.72±1.985) years. The moderate activity days were reported as average last 7 days activity, while vigorous activity means days of (2.69 ± 2.50) per week. This research revealed that the physical activity among female students was of low level but they were also unwilling to increase their physical activity levels. Though most of the students also realized the importance of being physically active as they were experiencing many of the health benefits as well. Key Words: Physical activity, hypertension, vigorous activities, skeletal muscles , Functional activities