Abstract:

Aim: It is a well-known fact that physical activity plays an effective role in preventing obesity, which is considered one of the most important health problems today. The first objective of the study is to determine the relationship between obesity and physical activity levels (PAL) of the academic staff, who spend most of their time sitting at a table, and the second objective is to determine the relationship between body mass index (BMI), body fat percentage (BFP) body fat mass (BFM) and PAL in terms of gender. Methods: 355 voluntary academic staff working at Niğde Ömer Halisdemir University participated in the current study. PALs of the academic staff were determined through the short form of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire, the BMI, BFM and BFP by body analysis system and their systolic-diastolic blood pressure through the automatic blood pressure instrument. After the obtained data were analyzed by SPSS program, Mann-Whitney U test was used to determine the difference between sexes, BMI, BFM, BFP and PAL, Spearman correlation analysis was used to determine the relationship between BMI, BFM, BFP and PAL. Results: As a result of statistical analysis, there was no statistically significant relationship between BMI, BFM, BFP and PAL. It was determined that BMIs of male academic staff were significantly higher than female ones, whereas BFP of female academic staff were significantly higher than male ones “p<0.05”. It was also found that 77% of male academic staff, 32% of female academic staff were overweight. Moreover, 15% of male academic staff and 5% of female academic staff were above the cardiovascular risk limit of systolic blood pressure. In addition, female academic staff have low PALs, whereas male academic staff have high PALs. Conclusion: As a conclusion, it can be stated that the PALs are very low due to the fact that the academic staff spend most of their time on their desks, and thus depending on the sedentary lifestyle they have a high risk of such diseases as obesity, high blood pressure, etc.   

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