Associations of Physical Inactivity with Health-Related Markers in Adults: A Discriminant Analysis from a Fitness Promotion Campaign
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15282/mekatronika.v7i2.13178Keywords:
Health-related indicators, Physical activity assessment, Physical fitnessAbstract
The World Health Organization has initiated a strategic plan to curve the prevalence of physical inactivity across the globe by 10% and 30% by the years 2025 and 2030, respectively. However, a recent survey by the Ministry of Health Malaysia demonstrated that one in three Malaysian adults were physically inactive. Although survey data could provide useful information, it is prone to subjectivity. The current study is aimed at objectively evaluating the physical activity levels of Malaysian adults with respect to health-related markers, i.e., height, weight, body fat percentage (BFP), muscle mass, body mass index (BMI), basal metabolic rate (BMR), resting heart rate (RHR), blood pressure (BP), muscle endurance, and maximum oxygen consumption (VO2max). A total of 232 adults were recruited for this study. The physical activity levels of the participants was categorized into high, moderate and low by using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire and the above-mentioned health-related markers were measured via standard health-related marker measurements. A discriminant analysis was used as a statistical technique to distinguish the physical activity levels and the corresponding health-related markers of the participants. The results showed that there were no differences between the physical activity levels in terms of BMI, muscle mass, visceral fat, BMR, and BP (p>0.05). However, there were significant differences in percentile of BFP, RHR, muscle endurance, and VO2max (p<0.05). A high level of physical activity is attributed to lower RHR and BFP, muscular as well as cardiovascular endurance, which are non-trivial in helping individuals meet the demands of daily tasks.
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