ABSTRACT
Background: Lifelong health behaviours, including physical activity (PA) are often established during emerging adulthood. This study was aimed to characterize the PA information-seeking behaviour (PAISB) of undergraduate emerging adults in a Nigerian University.
Methods: Following a simple random sampling method, 575 undergraduate students (mean age=21.7±1.88 years, range=18-25 years) from the University of Benin participated in this study. Their PAISB were obtained using an adapted instrument. The face and content validity of the instrument was tested among experts. The international physical activity questionnaire and the exercise benefits and barriers scale were used to assess the PA levels and the barriers to PA, respectively. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse data. Alpha level was set at p<0.05.
Results: The prevalence of PAISB was 61% (females (63.3%), males (57.1%)). PAISB was mostly obtained from social media (73.8%), followed by friends (41.8%) and family (22.9%). Physical appearance (34.6%), followed by health (33.7%) as the top reasons for PAISB. Having moderate levels of barriers to PA was three times more likely to influence PAISB than having high levels of barriers to PA (OR=3.02, 95%CI 1.07 to 8.52; p= 0.04). Also, low PA levels was associated with 0.5 less likelihood to seek PA information than having high PA levels (OR=0.51, 95% CI 0.28 to 0.92; p=0.03).
Conclusion: Undergraduate emerging adults seek PA information using social media more in a bid to enhance their physical appearance and health. Having moderate levels of barriers to PA leads to greater likelihood to seek for PA information.
KEYWORDS: Physical activity information seeking behaviour, undergraduate emerging adults
