Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Regarding Physical Activity in Nursing and Midwifery Students

Background: There are some mediators that affect physical activity such as knowledge and attitued. Some barriers such as lack of time, bad environments may impede doing physical activites. It sounds that lack of time is a common barrier to do physical activity in nursing and midwifery students. Since they encounter some factors that affect their health, this knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) study may be helpful to maintain and improve their health. Objectives: The Current study aimed to explore the knowledge, attiutude and practice related to physical activity in nursing and midwifery students. Partlents and Methods: By simple randomized sampling method, ۲۰۰ subjects were enrolled in the study. Based on the international physical activity questionnaire (IPAQ), a standard checklist was use to gather the related data. Then, the data were analyzed by SPSS software in ۹۵% confidence interval (CI). Results: Mean and standard deviation of subjects' attitude was ۵.۹±۳.۱ (minimum: -۳, maximum: ۱۴, median: ۶). There was no significant difference in the means of knowledge and attitued between genders, and also between nursing and midwifery students. There was significant difference only regarding walking (P=۰.۰۱۷), stretching (P=۰.۰۵۰) and body building (P=۰.۴۰) between the students in ۹۵% CI. Conclusions: Based on the current study finding, planning is needed to increase KAP of the students regarding physical activity. Some types of physical activity are more attractive than others for males and females separately, yet it is importamnt to encourage the nursing and midwifery students to examine a variety of physical activites and help them find suitable activities.