Physical Fitness and Exercise Behaviors of Students in Swimming Course, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai Campus

Abstract

The present study aims to 1) determine physical fitness levels; 2) investigate exercise behaviors; and 3) compare the relationship between exercise behaviors and personal factors, classified by sexes and years of education of student enrolled in swimming courses. The sample comprises 94 university students in Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai Campus who enrolled in swimming courses (895-141 Swimming (for former program) and 895-030 Swimming (for new program)) during Semester 2/2018. Purposive sampling was employed to select the students with suitable physcial fitness for this study. The instruments were A physical fitness test certified by the Sports Authority of Thailand and a student survey on exercise knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors.

The findings are as follows: 1) level of physical fitness of 57 students (60.6%) demonstrated poor, of 20 (21.3%) very poor, and of 17 (18.1%) moderate. 2) In overall, most students do exercises frequently (μ = 2.95) 3) The comparative results between exercise behaviors and personal factors classified by sexes and years of enrollment, indicated insignificant statistical differences at the 0.05 cutoff. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that both female and male students have poor level of physical fitness and that sex and year of education have no significant relationship with exercise behaviors.