KNOWLEDGE, PERCEPTION, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE OF ACTIVE COMMUTING WITHIN CAMPUS AMONG UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN

Abstract

Physical inactivity is a major contributing factor to the burden of Non-communicable diseases especially among adolescent and young adult and active commuting has a potential to increase the physical activity (PA) levels of the adolescent and young adult population. There have been an extensive research on physical activity among adolescent and adult but Active Commuting (AC) especially in the area of measuring the attitude and prevalence in Nigeria’s university settings are not fully explored. This study therefore aimed at investigating the knowledge, perception, attitude towards the Health benefit of AC and practice among undergraduate students of the University of Ibadan. The study was a descriptive cross-sectional survey that involved 424 undergraduate students of the University of Ibadan that reside in the residential halls. A three stage sampling procedure was used to select eligible respondents from different blocks within the 10 halls of residence. Data was collected using a pretested questionnaire that contained 10-point knowledge scale on AC, 11-point perception and 11-point attitude scales. Practice was rated in three groups; active, semi-active and passive commuting. Knowledge score on AC of 1-3 were considered poor, >3-6 fair, and >6-10 good. Perception scores of > 5 and ≤ 5 were categorized as favourable and unfavourable respectively. Attitudinal scores of > 5 and ≤ 5 were categorized as positive and Negative respectively. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-square test at p˂0.05. The age of respondents was 20.5±2.6 years. Mean knowledge score was 5.9±2.2 with 46.7% of the respondents having fair knowledge of the health benefits of AC while 38.8% had good knowledge and only 14.5% had poor knowledge. Mean perception score was 2.2±1.7 and 96.2% had unfavourable perception about AC. Mean attitude score was 1.8±1.6 with 96.4% having negative attitude about AC. Level of practice showed that 61.7% of the respondents were active commuters, 17% were semi active commuters while 21.3% were passive commuters. Factors influencing non practice of AC included long distance between residence and lecture room (49.6%) and wanting to get to school faster (58.3%). An association was found between socio-demographic characteristics such as; gender, level of study, age, and residential Hall, and active commuting practices. Males are 0.55 times more likely to commute actively than the females. No association was found between respondents’ monthly income and level of practice of active commuting. Knowledge, perception and attitude in relation to ones environment can determine ones commuting practices. A sustainable health education program should be developed to enlighten student on University of Ibadan campus on the health benefit of active commuting.