Abstract

PENA QUIMBAYA, Eder; COLINA GALLO, Evelyn  and  VASQUEZ GOMEZ, Ana Cecilia. PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN PERSONNEL OF THE UNIVERSIDAD DE CALDAS, COLOMBIA. Hacia promoc. Salud [online]. 2009, vol.14, n.2, pp.53-66. ISSN 0121-7577.

Objective: Characterize the physical activity of the personnel of the Universidad de Caldas. Methodology: A cross-sectional descriptive study carried out with 78 personnel from February to December 2008. The bridged IPAQ (International Physical Activity Questionnaire) questionnaire, as well as the physical activity questionnaire was applied to the personnel: socio-demographical aspects, physical condition, reasons for practicing physical act. For the analysis and tabulation of the information the distribution frequencies was used. Descriptive statistics were usedwith the Epi-Info version 6.0 program. Results: According to the IPAQ results, 51.3% of the personnel qualified as sufficiently active (active), followed by 37.2% as insufficiently active (sedentary), and finally 11.5% as highly active (very active). 83.3% of the employees do not know the company’s norms regarding physical activity, and only 19.2% take part in the Sports programs of the university. 74.4% of the personnel is interested in doing exercise, but they do not practice it. For 96.4% of the employees, the main reason for being physically active is their health, and the benefits they expect to obtain are a better physical condition (78.8%) and entertainment (39.5%). As for hygienic preventive habits, 66.7% do not control the pulse during physical activity. Conclusions: The level of physical activity of the personnel of the Universidad de Caldas is above average regarding the levels for the population of the city of Manizales and of other studies carried out with population of other higher education institutions. The relationships between the physical activity level and socio-demographic variables such asgender, age, and marital status agree with those described in the literature. With regards to the interest in physical activity and using the change phase model,the personnel of the Universidad de Caldas are in a contemplation stage. The institutional importance was identified regarding regulations, their diffusion and implementation of a healthy physical activity program for the personnel, in agreement with the recommendations from the scientific literature.

Keywords : Activity physical; exercise; health promotion.

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