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Original article
Leisure time physical activity and quality of life in medical students: results from a multicentre study
  1. Munique Peleias1,2,
  2. Patricia Tempski1,2,
  3. Helena BMS Paro3,
  4. Bruno Perotta4,
  5. Fernanda B Mayer1,2,
  6. Sylvia C Enns1,2,
  7. Silmar Gannam5,
  8. Maria Amelia D Pereira6,
  9. Paulo S Silveira7,
  10. Itamar S Santos1,2,
  11. Celso RF Carvalho8,
  12. Milton A Martins1,2
  1. 1 Center for Development of Medical Education, School of Medicine of the University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
  2. 2 Departments of Medicine, School of Medicine of the University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
  3. 3 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Federal University of Uberlandia, Uberlandia, Brazil
  4. 4 Evangelical Medical School of Parana, Curitiba, Brazil
  5. 5 University of the City of São Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
  6. 6 Federal University of Goias, Goiania, Brazil
  7. 7 Department of Pathology, School of Medicine of the University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
  8. 8 Department of Physical Therapy, School of Medicine of the University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
  1. Correspondence to Dr Milton A Martins; mmartins{at}usp.br

Abstract

Background/aim We evaluated the association between leisure time physical activity (PA) and quality of life (QoL) in medical students. Our hypothesis was that there was a positive association between volume of PA and various domains of perception of QoL.

Methods Data were evaluated from a random sample of 1350 medical students from 22 Brazilian medical schools. Information from participants included the WHO Quality of Life questionnaire-short form (WHOQOL-BREF), a questionnaire specifically designed to evaluate QoL in medical students (VERAS-Q) and questions for both global QoL self-assessment and leisure time PA. According to the amount of metabolic equivalents (METs) spend during PA, volunteers were divided into four groups, according to the volume of PA: (a) no PA; (b) low PA, ≤540 MET min/week; (c) moderate PA, from 541 to 1260 MET min/week and (d) high PA, > 1261 MET min/week.

Results Forty per cent of the medical students reported no leisure time PA (46.0% of females and 32.3% of males). In contrast, 27.2% were classified in the group of high PA (21.0% of females and 34.2% of males). We found significant associations between moderate and high levels of PA and better QoL for all measurements. For low levels of PA, this association was also significant for most QoL measurements, with the exceptions of WHOQOL physical health (p=0.08) and social relationships (p=0.26) domains.

Conclusion We observed a strong dose-effect relationship between the volume of leisure time PA and QoL in both male and female medical students.

  • Behaviour
  • Exercises
  • Gender
  • Physical activity
  • Quality of life

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjsem-2016-000213

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    Footnotes

    • Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the associate researchers, members of the VERAS Collaborative Research Group, for their hard work recruiting students. The authors would also like to thank the participating students for their willingness to complete the questionnaires.

    • Contributors Conceived and designed the experiments: MP, PT, HBMSP, BP, SCE, SG, MADP, PSS, CFC, MAM. Created the electronic platform for data collection: PSS. Performed the data collection: MP, PT, HBMSP, BP, FBM, SCE, SG, PSS, CFC, MAM. Analysed the data: MP, PT, ISS, MAM. Wrote and revised the manuscript: MP, PT, HBMSP, BP, FBM, SCE, SG, MADP, PSS, ISS,CFC, MAM.

    • Funding The study was supported by the following Brazilian scientific agencies: Nacional Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) and São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP).

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent Obtained from patients.

    • Ethics approval The research protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the School of Medicine of the University of Sao Paulo and all medical schools included in the study.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data sharing statement All additional unpublished data from the study are available on request to Milton A Martins, MD (email: mmartins@usp.br).