Influence of family socioeconomic status on practicing regular physical activity among young people

Abstract

Physical activity is one of the key factors in protecting and promoting peoples’ health of all ages around the world.Healthy lifestyle that includes physical activity,  healthy food and appropriate health education will creating healthy young people, who will have  a healthy and long life. The aim of the paper was to determine if there was a link between socioeconomic status in the family and practicing regular physical activity among young people. Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive-analytical study. It included 316 students in the second and third year of the study program for general medicine at the Faculty of Medicine at UKIM in Skopje. Results and Discussion: Students who practiced moderate physical activity came from families with monthly incomes higher than 30,000 denars or it was 48.4% compared to 34.65% of students who came from families with monthly incomes lower than 30,000 denars. There was a weak positive correlation between the monthly income of students' families and the practice of physical activity, R=0.21, p=0.002. Conclusion: The financial situation in the family has a main role in practicing physical activity. Therefore, with the increase of the family budget, the days when the students are physically active increase, too.