The Level of Physical Activity of Female Junior High School Students in Mazandaran, Iran, in 2017 and Its Relationship withSocioeconomic Status

Introduction: Participating in regular physical activity has positive effects on thehealth and behavior of adolescents. Physical activity is multifaceted and has bothinterrelated psychological, biological and environmental effects. Therefore, thisstudy was conducted to determine the level of physical activity of femalestudents and its relationship with their socioeconomic status.Methods: 630 junior high school students in Mazandaran were selected based onrandomized multistage cluster sampling in the year 2017. The tools used forcollecting data were pedometers, and demographic and Ghodratnamasocioeconomic status questionnaires. Data analysis was done using SPSS23software with descriptive and inferential statistics (the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test,the one-way analysis of variance [ANOVA], and the Pearson correlationcoefficient) at a significance level of P ≤ 0.05.Results: The results showed that the level of physical activity of studentsdecreased as grade level increased. An ANOVA showed a significant differencebetween the level of physical activity of students in 7-9 grades, but Tukey’s posthoc test showed a significant difference between the level of physical activity of7th grade students with 8th and 9th, while the difference between the students ofgrades 8 and 9 was not significant statistically. Out of all students, 30.72% ofstudents were active and 69.28% inactive. The Pearson correlation coefficientshowed that there was no significant relationship between socioeconomic statusand level of physical activity.Conclusion: A vast majority of adolescent girls do not do the amount of physicalactivity recommended for good health, which is a worrying issue. It is suggestedthat relevant authorities mobilize basic strategies for changing the lifestyles ofadolescent girls, including the development of a comprehensive program ofphysical activity by specialists.

کلیدواژه ها:

Physical Activity ، Adolescence ، Socioeconomic Status