Health awareness, motor performance and physical activity of female university students Study aim: To assess body composition, health awareness and cardiorespiratory fitness in female university students differing in volume of obligatory physical activity classes. Material and methods: 109 female students of the University of West Hungary volunteered to participate in the study. The subjects were divided into two groups according to frequency and volume of obligatory physical activity: students of recreation and health education programmes (RHE; n = 27) and of social pedagogy, tourism and catering, and teacher training programmes (STT; n = 82). Basic somatic characteristics were measured, body composition was assessed by bioelectrical impedance, cardiorespiratory fitness was evaluated using the Rockport Fitness Walking Test and health behaviour was assessed by questionnaire method. Student's t-test for independent samples, the U Mann Whitney test or chi-square test were used in data analysis. Results: RHE students had higher values of percentage muscle mass (p<0.05) and of cardiorespiratory performance (p<0.001), they also declared significantly more frequently (p<0.001) practicing leisure physical activity as compared with the STT group. However, in both groups the symptoms of unhealthy behaviour were observed. Conclusions: Although beneficial effects of augmented physical activity on body composition, cardiorespiratory performance and attitudes towards taking up leisure-time activity was noted, attention should be paid to symptoms of unhealthy behaviour observed in female students. This support the need for including obligatory physical education classes in university curriculum and the importance of education and promotion of healthy behaviour among the students.

The purpose of this study was to reveal the characteristics of quality of life, activities, and value systems of the adults participating in our survey. Within these factors, we paid special attention to psychosomatic values such as health, physical activity, free time, and to such activities as sports, trips, and walking. Our sample (N=142) was selected in Budapest and in eight cities/towns in Western Hungary and was asked to fill out a questionnaire with open and closed-ended questions. The middleaged adults participating in the study (M=45.8 SD±8.810) seem to have a sufficient amount of free time, and only a third of them take part in no or very little physical activity on a regular basis. Personal relationships were the most important component of quality of life, followed by physical environment, meaning in life, and health satisfaction. They also unequivocally considered family as the most important among the value categories. In addition, they ranked health, love, and honour at the top of their scale. The least accepted or preferred values from the bottom of the ordinal scale were sports, career, and free time. As to the rank order of everyday activities, at the top of the scale we can find sleeping/relaxation, reading, TV/film. Society/friends, physical activities/games, computing/internet, trips/walking, and listening to music were considered less popular. In accordance with the literature, the values rank order of the adult population has revealed that sports and trips are significantly less preferred values and activity forms than passive relaxation, sleeping, reading, and watching TV.

The aims of this study were 1) to present the health awareness characteristic of the female students, 2) to characterize the differences by groups along the comparison of health behaviour, selected body composition attributes and cardio-respiratory performances variables. The two groups of the sample; one group consisted of students majoring in teacher training, social pedagogy, tourism and catering, the others are majors in recreation, health promotion courses (n=109); were selected from full-time female students at the University of West Hungary. In our research we used questionnaire (for investigate health behaviour and attitude), the Rockport Fitness Walking Test (for the measurement of cardio-respiratory performance in the sub-max zone to estimate relative VO 2 max) and InBody 720 bioelectrical impedance scanner (for analyzing body composition). For the analysis, descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA and Mann Whitney U test were used testing significance at the 95% level of confidence. Differences between the group members' health behaviour was found in only one examined dimension, namely physical activity. The results of other indicators (the hours of tiredness, state of health, habits of smoking and alcohol consumption) showed identical values. We have find significant difference between the groups in the following variables: frequency of physical activity, the muscle percentage and the cardio-respiratory performance. With the exception of one segment of body composition and the results of physical activity indicators; probably due to differences in physical activity; the groups can be viewed as strongly heterogeneous.

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SummaryStudy aim: Over the last two decades, the body fat mass has been increasing and the level of physical fitness has been decreasing in school-aged children. Due to the health-related concerns that have arisen regarding school-aged children, the Hungarian government introduced everyday physical education in 2012. Since girls are more disposed to higher body fat and low fitness levels, the aim of our study was to characterise the physique, body composition and aerobic capacity of 10 to 14-year-old girls three years after the introduction of the new curriculum with daily PE lessons. Material and methods: All of the primary schools that were selected to participate in this study serve as partnership schools in the University of West Hungary's teacher training programme (N = 8). The sample included only those upper primary school girls (10 to 14 years of age) who participated in the everyday physical education lesson (N = 543). Standard anthropometric techniques and a 20m shuttle run test were selected for the analysis. Results: An important result of this study was the finding that differences in the body composition features were consistently significant among the age groups. However, there were no differences among the age groups in the results of the 20 m multistage fitness test, nor in the girls' relative aerobic capacity. Conclusions: It can be presumed that an unfavourable body composition and poor fitness occur primarily in the prepuberty years. Everyday physical education serves as a good opportunity for shaping the girls' fitness level and body composition, and also for encouraging healthy active living.