Are senior high school students in Ghana meeting WHO's recommended level of physical activity? Evidence from the 2012 Global School-based Student Health Survey Data

Abdul-Aziz Seidu; Bright Opoku Ahinkorah; Ebenezer Agbaglo; Eugene Kofuor Maafo Darteh; Edward Kwabena Ameyaw; Eugene Budu; Hawa Iddrisu

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0229012

Are senior high school students in Ghana meeting WHO's recommended level of physical activity? Evidence from the 2012 Global School-based Student Health Survey Data

PLoS One. 2020 Feb 12;15(2):e0229012. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0229012. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Abdul-Aziz Seidu¹, Bright Opoku Ahinkorah², Ebenezer Agbaglo³, Eugene Kofuor Maafo Darteh¹, Edward Kwabena Ameyaw², Eugene Budu¹, Hawa Iddrisu⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Population and Health, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
² The Australian Centre for Public and Population Health Research (ACPPHR), Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
³ Department of English, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
⁴ Ghana Education Service, Techiman Municipal, Bono East Region, Techiman, Ghana.

Abstract

Introduction: Physical activity (PA) has both short- and long-term importance. In this study we sought to assess the prevalence and correlates of PA among 1,542 Senior High School (SHS) students.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Ghana among SHS students using the 2012 version of the Ghana Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS) data, which utilised two-stage cluster sampling technique. The population for the study comprised SHS students. The outcome variable was physical activity. The data were analysed using STATA version 14.2 for Mac OS. Both bivariate and multivariate analyses were employed. At the bivariate level, Pearson chi-square test between each independent variable and PA was conducted and the level of statistical significance was set at 5%. All the significant variables from the chi-square test were selected for the multivariate analysis. In the multivariate analysis, Poisson regression with robust variance was performed to estimate crude and adjusted prevalence ratios (APR).

Results: It was found that 25.0% (29.0% males and 21.9% females) of SHS students were physically active. Female students (APR = 0.78, 95% CI = 0.65, 0.94), students in SHS 2 (APR = 0.76, 95% CI = 0.577, 0.941) and SHS3 (APR = 0.79, 95% CI = 0.63, 0.93), and those who went hungry (APR = 0.77, 95% CI = 0.65, 0.92) were less likely to be physically active compared to males, those in SHS1 and those who did not go hungry respectively. On the other hand, students who actively commuted to school (APR = 2.40, 95% CI = 1.72, 2.42) and got support from their peers were more likely to be physically active (APR = 1.62, 95% CI = 1.09-2.41).

Conclusion: Only a quarter of SHS students who participated in the 2012 version of the GSHS met the WHO's recommended level of physical activity. Sex, grade/form and experience of hunger are associated with physical activity. Physical activity is a major component of any health promotion program. Policies and programmes targeting improvement in physical activity among SHS students should take these associated factors into consideration.

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adolescent Behavior*
Cross-Sectional Studies
Exercise*
Female
Ghana
Health Promotion*
Health Surveys*
Humans
Male
Schools*
Students*
World Health Organization

Grants and funding

The authors received no specific funding for this work.