International Journal of Current Research and Review Research Article DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.31782/IJCRR.2021.13602 Differences of Domain-specific Physical Activity Levels among the Adults of Majha Region of Indian IJCRR Punjab: A Cross-sectional Study Section: Healthcare ISI Impact Factor (2019-20): 1.628 1 2 3 4 IC Value (2019): 90.81 Harmandeep Singh , Sukhdev Singh , Amandeep Singh , Tarsem Singh , SJIF (2020) = 7.893 Vikesh Kumar5 1 2 Copyright@IJCRR Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Education, Apeejay College of Fine Arts, Jalandhar, India; Professor & Head, Department of Physical Education (T), Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, India; 3Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Education (T), Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, India; 4Associate Professor, Department of Physical Education, Lyallpur Khalsa College, Jalandhar, India; 5Director, Physical Education, Government Degree College Jindrah, Jammu & Kashmir, India. ABSTRACT Background: Regular participation in physical activity is essential to attain health benefits. Previous studies have stressed to consider domains of physical activity while assessing the physical activity levels across the different sections of the populations. Objective: To assess the differences in physical activity levels between males and females of the Majha region of Indian Punjab. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted including the four districts of the Majha region of Indian Punjab. A total of 1130 participants including 628 females and 502 males were interviewed using the WHO-recommended Global Physical activity questionnaire (GPAQ). Physical activity was assessed in three domains viz. work, transport and recreational. Mann-Whitney U test was applied to compare the non-parametric data of physical activity levels. Results: No significant differences were found in the work domain and transport domain in any of the age group. However, the age group of 53-64 years and the overall sample showed significant differences between both genders (p<.05). Conclusion: Males of the age group 53-64 years had higher levels of total physical activity and recreational activity than fe- males. Key Words: GPAQ, Recreation, Work, Transport, WHO, Domain INTRODUCTION and Behaviour of School Children (HBSC) in twenty Eu- ropean nations indicated that engagement in physical activ- Research has shown that regular physical activity (PA) en- ity decreases with age, and females had less physical activ- gagement harvests multiple physical and mental health ity levels than males.6 As per the previous research, males 1 gains. Earlier studies have outlined various factors that af- have lifelong higher physical activity levels than females.7 fect participation in physical activity such as age, gender, Following the literature review, we hypothesized signifi- socioeconomic status, residence, job nature, health status, cant gender differences in physical activity levels in all age 2,3 self-efficacy, and many more. Of these, gender is one such groups. We conducted this study to assess the gender differ- factor that has been consistently remained a determinant of ences of domain-specific physical activity levels among the 4 participation in physical activity. A large body of literature different age groups. reports that males engage more in physical activity than fe- males.5 Psycho-social factors such as self-efficacy, social support, and motivation are the dominant determinants of MATERIALS AND METHODS females’ less participation in physical activity.5 Study design and participants Studies in developed nations have assessed the differences in The study design was cross-sectional. The participants were physical activity levels and patterns concerning age and gen- 1130 adult participants constituting 628 females and 502 der among youngsters. A survey conducted by The Health Corresponding Author: Amandeep Singh, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Education (T), Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, India. Mobile: 8591037219; E-mail: [email protected] ISSN: 2231-2196 (Print) ISSN: 0975-5241 (Online) Received: 06.09.2020 Revised: 28.10.2020 Accepted: 03.12.2020 Published: 20.03.2021 Int J Cur Res Rev | Vol 13 • Issue 06 • March 2021 23 Singh et al.: Differences of domain-specific physical activity levels among the adults of majha region of indian punjab: a cross-sectional study males from the four districts (Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Tarn age group (p>.05) exhibited that differences in PA were not Taran, and Pathankot) of the Majha region of Indian Punjab. significant between males and females. The age ranged from 18-64 years, which was further clas- Table 3 outlines the results of gender differences of MET sified into different intervals, viz. 18-29, 30-40, 41-52 and minutes/week in the recreation domain. No significant dif- 53-64 years. ferences were found in the age group of 18-29, 30-40 and 41-52 years. However, in the age group of 53-64, the mean Data collection ranks of males and females were 107.68 and 93.33 respec- The WHO recommended Global Physical Activity Question- tively. The p-value of .023* (p<.05) showed that there were naire (GPAQ) was used to collect data. The GPAQ consists significant differences in PA between males and females in of 15 items that ask the respondents to report moderate and this age group. In the 18-64 age group (overall), the mean vigorous-intensity physical activities performed in three ranks of males and females were 584.44 and 550.36 respec- domains, viz. work domain, transport domain, and recrea- tively. The p-value of .018* (p<.05) exhibited that males and 10,18 tional domain. The questionnaire derives the metabolic females significantly differed on recreation-related PA in the equivalents of task (MET-minutes/week) during a typical overall sample. Comparing the mean ranks, it can be inter- week. MET (Metabolic equivalent of task) is the fraction preted that males were found more engaged in recreation-re- of an individual’s working metabolic rate relative to their lated physical activity than females in the age group of 53-64 16 metabolic rate while at rest. The GPAQ also includes one years and 18-64 years group (overall sample). item of sedentary behaviour, but it was not considered in the analyses.10The data cleaning, coding and processing was 19 done as per the manual of GPAQ. The students of Master of DISCUSSION Physical Education acted as interviewers under the supervi- sion of the principal investigator. A pilot test on 20 subjects This study aimed to assess the differences in domain-specific tested the data reliability by correlating the data derived by physical activity levels of adults of the Majha region of In- the interviewers against the data derived by the principal in- dian Punjab. Previous research has stressed to consider the vestigator. domains of physical activity in physical activity surveillance studies.11 In this study, the three domains of physical activity Ethical approval and consent were separately assessed for gender differences. The study was approved by the Board of Control (BOC) of In our study, both males and females of all ages had equal Faculty of Physical Education (T), Guru Nanak Dev Univer- physical activity levels in the work and transport domain; sity, Amritsar (Letter no. 1150-52/Gen/Ph.D dated 23/09/15). however, in the recreation domain, males showed more en- The informed consent was taken from all the participants be- gagement in physical activity than females. In the overall fore the data collection. sample, males were found to be statistically more engaged in physical activity than their counterpart females. Further- Statistical Analyses more, differences were observed in the 53-64 years age IBM SPSS version 21 was utilized to analyze the data. The group as males were more active in recreation and total phys- normality of data was tested with the Kolmogorov–Smirnov ical activity. Although females of the age group 41-52 years and Shapiro-Wilk tests. Since the data were not normally dis- showed better physical activity engagement than males in tributed, comparisons of the physical activity levels between the work domain, the variation could not achieve statistical genders were made by running the Mann-Whitney U test for significance. Similarly, males of age group 30-40 years had non-parametric data. The comparisons were made for each higher mean ranks of physical activity than females; howev- age interval and overall sample in three different domains of er, these differences could not attain statistical significance. physical activity. The alpha level was set at .05 level in all analyses. A similar study differentiated the PA levels in males and females and reported that females achieved 3365 MET- minutes/week, significantly lesser than 3863 MET-minutes/ RESULTS week attained by males.9 A study on university students re- ported that males had more participation in leisure and sport Of the total participants, 502 (44.42%) were males. Results physical activity than females, whereas no significant gender of gender differences of MET minutes/week in the work do- differences were found in work, transportation, and domes- main are presented in table 1. Mann-Whitney test revealed tic domains.12 Another study on rural sample conveyed that that no significant differences existed between both genders physical activity participation was least during leisure time in the work domain PA in any of the age group. and in the work domain while higher in the transport do- Table 2 outlines the results of gender differences of MET main.14 A different study on urban and rural Indian residents minutes/week in the transport domain. The p-value of each informed that inactivity was higher during leisure and recre- Int J Cur Res Rev | Vol 13 • Issue 06 • March 2021 24 Singh et al.: Differences of domain-specific physical activity levels among the adults of majha region of indian punjab: a cross-sectional study ation time by 74% and lower in work time by 31%.13 Another Author Contribution study by Talaei et al.