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Physical fitness and academic performance among undergraduate students of a public university in Malaysia


Citation

Maghsoudi, Emad and Kandiah, Mirnalini and Lim, Wai Kong and Mohd Yusof, Barakatun Nisak and Appukutty, Mahenderan (2014) Physical fitness and academic performance among undergraduate students of a public university in Malaysia. European Journal of Sports and Exercise Science, 3 (1). pp. 27-32. ISSN 2278-005X

Abstract

Physical Fitness and Academic Performance among Undergraduate Students of a Public University in Malaysia: This study investigated the relationship between health-related components of physical fitness consisting of morphological fitness (body fat % or BF %; Body Mass Index or BMI; and waist circumference or WC), metabolic fitness (blood glucose, lipid profiles and haemoglobin) and aerobic capacity (VO2max) with academic performance. This cross-sectional study involved 324 volunteer undergraduates in their first year of study recruited by systematic random sampling from a public university in the city Shah Alam, Malaysia. Physical fitness was measured by anthropometric measurements using standard protocols and field fitness tests. Students‘ registration numbers linked the university database to import the Cumulative Grade Point Average. A weak, negative significant relationship was found between WC and academic performance (r = -0.120, p = 0.034). There was a weak negative significant relationship between VO2max and academic performance (r = -0.128, p = 0.029). There was a negative, medium significant relationship between LDL-cholesterol and academic performance (r = -0.505, p = 0.017). Running of Linear regression analysis (stepwise) showed that household income (Ɓ = 0.125, R2= 2.9%) and waist circumference (Ɓ = -0.005, R2 = 1.7%) contributed significantly towards academic performance (F = 7.29, p<0.05). Although waist circumference contributed significantly towards academic performance, it cannot be concluded that health component of physical fitness enhance academic performance since the association is so weak.


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Additional Metadata

Item Type: Article
Divisions: Faculty of Medicine and Health Science
Publisher: Scholars Research Library
Keywords: Academic performance; Anthropometric; Physical fitness; University students; Blood profile
Depositing User: Nurul Ainie Mokhtar
Date Deposited: 23 Dec 2015 12:18
Last Modified: 23 Dec 2015 12:18
URI: http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/34919
Statistic Details: View Download Statistic

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