Knowledge of Health Benefits of Engaging in Physical Activity among Adolescents in Secondary Schools in Nsukka Education Zone, Enugu State

Abstract

This study aimed to determine knowledge of the health benefits of engaging in physical activities possessed by in-school adolescents in secondary schools in Nssukka Education Zones. The study utilized a survey research design. Population for the study consisted of 30,735 in-school adolescents in Nsukka Education Zone. The sample for the study was 412 in-school adolescents, selected through random sampling without replacement technique. The instrument for data collection was structured by the researcher based on the literature on Physical health benefits, psychological benefits and social benefits. The instrument consisted of four sections (A, B, C &D). Section ‘A’ contained items that elicited information on personal data of the respondents. Section ‘B’ contains items on knowledge of physical benefits. Section ‘C’ contained items on psychological benefits while section ‘D’ contained items on social benefits. The validity of the instrument was determined by the consensus of five experts drawn from the Department of Human Kinetics and Health Education University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Cronbach Alpha statistic were used to determine the reliability coefficient of the instruments which gave 0.70, 0.71 and 0.69 respectively. Data were collected from the sampled in-school adolescents in Nsukka Education Zone by personal visit to their respective sampled schools. Data collected were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences-IBM-SPSS version 21. Mean and the standard deviation was used to answer all the research questions. T-test statistic was used to test the null hypothesis at the 0.05 level of significance. Level of knowledge of physical and psychological health benefits was interpreted as low with scores (0-4), moderate (5-8), high (9-12). For social health benefits scores of (0-3) was low, (4-6) was moderate and (7-8) high. The result indicated that adolescents possess high knowledge of health benefits of PA but low knowledge of the recommended PA.