RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AMONG MEDICAL STUDENTS IN UKM LAB 5 MEDICINE & SOCIETY FACULTY OF MEDICINE UNIVERSITI KEBANGSAAN MALAYSIA DR Nur Fadhilah bt Mohd Razib

LAB MEMBERS 1AHMAD TARMIDZI BIN MOHD JAMALA AMELIA AKMAR BINTI RAMLIA AMIRA SOFIA BINTI JEMALEA ANIS BINTI AZMIA ASYRAF NASUHA BIN JAMSARIA CHAN CHEE YONGA DENNIS KHENG ZHOUA EUNICE NG SOO KHIANA JASVEENI A/P SREERAMLUA KHAIRULINI BINTI MOHD AMIROLA MIRA ADRIANA BINTI YAHYAA MOHD ZAKWAN BIN AHMAD ZALIZANA NUR AISYAH BINTI ABDUL RAHMANA NUR AZARINA BINTI ROSLIA NURUL AZUWA LIYANA BINTI NUR AZIZ HASHIMGA SHABBIR BIN FEROZEA SITI RAMZAH BINTI HASSANA TAY WERN TENGA THIVYASRI A/P KANAPATHYGA02545

INTRODUCTION Lack of physical activity is a trend that is growing nowadays. However, increased level in physical activity and fitness have shown to improve academic performance. Thus, a study was conducted among UKM year 2 medical students to find the relationship between physical activity and academic performance. This is to prove that physical activity has a significant relationship on the students’ academic performance.

OBJECTIVES General Objective To study relation between physical activity and academic performance among year 2 UKM medical students. Specific Objectives 1.To determine the level of physical activity on medical students. 2.To determine the academic performance of medical students.

RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS Null Hypothesis There is no relation between physical activity and academic performance Alternative Hypothesis Increased physical activity improves one’s academic performance.

RESEARCH QUESTION 1.What is the level of physical activity among Year 2 Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia students? 2.What is the effect of physical activity towards the academic performance of medical students?

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY "Physical activity is involvement of any body movement that works your muscles and requires more energy for example walking, running, dancing, swimming, yoga, and gardening. " (National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, 2015) LITERATURE REVIEW Source: What is Physical Activity? by National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute

ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE " Academic performance is used broadly to describe different factors that may influence student success in school. These factors fall into three primary areas that are cognitive skills and attitudes (e.g., attention/concentration, memory, verbal ability), academic behaviors (e.g., conduct attendance, time on task, homework completion) academic achievement (e.g. standardized test scores, grades).“ (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010) Source: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of America. (2015). Physical Activity. Retrieved from

Relationship between physical activities and academic performance Source: Sallis JF, McKenzie TL, Kolody B et al. Effects of healthrelated physical education on academic achievement: project SPARK. Res Q Exec Sport 1999; 70: Health behaviour and academic achievement 79 Downloaded from at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia on October 4, 2015 "Physical activity is linked strongly with the behavior of the students in classroom. Relationship between physical activity and academic performance was also seen in the cohort studies done." (Sallis et al,1999)

“In the first study which involves 546 students divided into control group and intervention group, It was shown that the intervention group who had poorer grades than the control group prior to intervention scored significantly better in math grades than control after but had poorer performance in languages and ‘overall intelligence’. However, in contrary to the first study, the second study showed no significant improvement in academic performance.” (Shephard RJ, 1996) Source: Shephard, R.J., H. Lavallee, M. Volle, R. LaBarre, and C. Beaucage Academic Skills and Required Physical Education: the Trois Rivieres experience. CAPHER J. Res Suppl 1:1-12.

ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE DIET  Malnourishment  Healthy eating SELF-ESTEEM BMI *PHYSICAL ACTIVITY SOCIOECONOMY  Poverty  Social support ‘*’ is the studied factor in this research

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Design: cross-sectional study Descriptive analysis: age, gender, race, academic performance, BMI, level of physical activity, flexibility and strength Analytic statistics: Student T-test, Pearson Chi-squared Test Study location: Preclinical of UKM Population: second year UKM medical students, 122 out of 184 in batch 2015/2016 With inclusion criteria of 2 nd year undergraduate medical student, aged between 19 to 25 years old as well as being single. Exclusion criteria of those who are married, aged more than 25 or less than 19. Convenience sampling: 122 second year medical student 5th October till 4th December 2015

RESEARCH TOOL: QUESTIONNAIRE Adapted from Rapid Assessment Physical Activity (RAPA) Content: Demographic (matric number, identification number, gender, race, date of birth and marital status) Physical status (height, weight, and BMI) RAPA questionnaire on level of physical activity, strength and flexibility.

RESULTS

Descriptive Analysis Bivariate Analysis Chi-squared test T test

VariableFrequencyPercentage (%) 1. AGE 19 year old 20 year old 21 year old 22 year old 23 year old GENDER Male Female RACE Chinese Non chinese ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE Good Poor

VariableFrequencyPercentage (%) 5. BMI Normal Unhealthy LEVEL OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY Inactive Active STRENGTH Yes No FLEXIBILITY Yes No

Chi-squared test Chi-squared test T test T test

Chi-squared (χ 2 ) Test Result VariableAcademic Performancep value GoodPoor 1. GENDER Male Female 22(48.9) 34(46.6) 23(51.1) 39(53.4) RACE Chinese Non-chinese 27 (75.0%) 29 (35.4%) 9 (25.0%) 53 (64.6%) < BMI Healthy Unhealthy 38(50.7) 18(41.9) 37(49.3) 25(58.1) 0.357

VariableAcademic Performancep value GoodPoor 4. LEVEL OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY Inactive Active 38 (52.1%) 18 (40.0%) 35 (47.9%) 27 (60.0%) STRENGTH Yes No 17 (50.0%) 38 (45.8%) 17 (50.0%) 45 (54.2%) FLEXIBILITY Yes No 21 (38.9%) 35 (54.7%) 33 (61.1%) 29 (45.3%) Chi-squared (χ 2 ) Test Result

Conclusion from Chi-squared Test Result There is no significant relationship between physical activity and academic performance of students.

T TEST RESULTS

VariableRACEp value Chinese Mean (Sd) Non Chinese Mean (Sd) CGPA <0.05 Association between race and CGPA

VariableLEVEL OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY p value Inactive Mean (Sd) Active Mean (Sd) CGPA ( ) ( )0.746 Association between level of physical activity and CGPA

VariableSTRENGTHp value Yes Mean (Sd) No Mean (Sd) CGPA Association between strength and CGPA

VariableFLEXIBILITYp value Yes Mean (Sd) No Mean (Sd) CGPA Association between flexibility and CGPA

Conclusion from the T-test Results From the tests done, there is no significant difference in academic performance between physically active and physically inactive students.

DISCUSSION

Discussion of the Test Results 1.Other research findings With a supporting a study from Tremblay et al (2000) conducted to investigate the relationship between physical activities and academic performance showed that there is a trivial negative relationship between physical activity and academic achievement but positive relationship with self-esteem. Thus, it proves that, physical activity only impacts a person’s behavior rather than cognitive skills. Furthermore, a separate study by Shephard RJ (1996) support our findings that there were no association between physical activity and academic performance. This result was achieving a relatively large sample size (546 students) that adds credibility and validity to the result.

Possible reasons contribute to the negative relationship There are other more influential factors which can contribute to academic performance, such as:  Small group discussion  Self-discipline  Attendance in lectures  Motivation Students who actively involved themselves in physical activity but lack of the above contributing factors might not have better academic performance. There are other more influential factors which can contribute to academic performance, such as:  Small group discussion  Self-discipline  Attendance in lectures  Motivation Students who actively involved themselves in physical activity but lack of the above contributing factors might not have better academic performance.

STUDY LIMITATION Lack of time – short period Recall bias that might affect the validity of the data The academic performance was based on past result while the physical activity was referred to current situation. Our research was focused only on Year 2 Medical Student which may have given an inaccurate result and the involvement of a single year and single university might not represent all the other medical students population.

increase the amount and diversity of respondents. increase sample size make the data more representative of a general populace Carry out the research with more time control group who carry out their daily lifestyle and mainly inacitve case group who are active and their physical activity is monitored on the course of the study At the en of the study, both are compare the two group to establish a more valid result Establish a cohort study the accuracy and validity of the results on-site measurement of BMI in order to eliminate recall bias in our data. intervention can be made to encourage more physical activity among medical students to boost academic performance significant relation is suggested RECOMMENDATION