Energy expenditure and physical activity patterns in physical education students

Abstract

Purpose: To assess PA and EE patterns in Hispanic PE students from a Central American university. Methods: A power analysis was used to estimate the sample size required for the study. The sample was stratified by gender and school year and randomly obtained from PE students from a public university in Costa Rica. Participants were 15 females and 27 males (mean age = 21.6 ±2.4 yr.). Participants were instructed to wear an accelerometer (ActiGraph, model wGT3X-BT)in the right hand wrist for seven days. Accelerometers were set to record data every day from 4:00am to 11:00pm. Then, participants returned their accelerometers for data downloading and further statistical analysis. Dependent variables analyzed were EE (kJ) and PA (minutes). Results: A three-way ANOVA with repeated measures on one factor (4 school year x 2 gender x 7-days) indicated no significant three-way (p = 0.60) or two-way (gender x 7-days, p = 0.74; gender x school year, p = 0.15; 7-days x school year, p = 0.16) interactions in EE. There was no significant difference in EE between different school years (p = 0.47). EE was higher during weekdays (8314.6 ± 3178.2 kJ) than on weekends (6304.7 ± 3012.8 kJ) (p < 0.001). There was a gender difference in mea daily EE regardless of school year and measurement time (Males = 8152.8±2430.5 kJ vs. Females =6944.7 ± 1888.4 kJ) (p = 0.03). PE students spent 71.5 % of the time in light PA (717 min/day), 26.8% in moderate PA (269 min/day), 1.2% in vigorous PA (12 min/day) and 0.4% in very vigorous activities (4 min/day). Conclusions: PE students have higher EE during weekdays than on weekends. Males showed higher energy expenditure than females, and the minutes of moderate daily PA are above the recommended ACSM’s guidelines.