Physical activity patterns among the university students: university of Dar es Salaam

This study sought to investigate physical activity patterns among the University of Dar es Salaam students. The need to know whether the physical activity patterns among the University of Dar es Salaam students coupled with the recognition of multiple benefits of physical activity caters for the different level of skills, knowledge, performance and utilization of the available resources in the University of Dar es Salaam necessitated this study to be conducted. A survey design was used in this study which involved a sample of 370 students from the University of Dar es Salaam. Questionnaire and documentary review were the instruments used to gather information from the sources. The questionnaire instrument used was 86.6% valid and its reliability was tested using Kurder Richardson Alpha Coefficient which gave result as 0.81, 0.83 and 0.83 for the four tasks respectively. Data were analyzed by applying SPSS. 10 for Windows. The findings indicated that there was a variety of sports and exercises carried out by University of Dar es Salaam students such as soccer, basketball, volleyball, netball, tennis, swimming, athletics, walking, jogging, jumping, push-ups, sit-ups and gymnastic exercises. Although most of students indicated important reasons for participation in physical activities, there is low participation rate and the majority of students are inactive. The main participation barriers identified include lack of time, lack of motivation and lack of knowledge on the benefits of participating in physical activity. Students indicated intention to change from inactive to active life style. It was concluded that physical activity in the university is not accorded the same priority compared to academic programmes and as a consequence this contributes to inactive life styles to the majority of university students. It was therefore recommended that the university authority, individual students, other physical activity practitioners should take whatever possible means to help students achieve their goals of becoming active participants. Together with intervention strategies such as provision of appropriate physical activity programmes, facilities and counseling services further researches should be conducted at the University of Dar es Salaam and other Universities to identify more areas related to physical activity that need attention.