Physical Activity Level and Its Relationship with Bone Health among Schoolchildren in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Chung, Casey (2020) Physical Activity Level and Its Relationship with Bone Health among Schoolchildren in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

Text Chung Casey_Full Text.pdf Restricted to Registered users only Download (1MB)

Abstract

Osteoporosis is correlated with fragility fractures and this is the main reason why it remains as a major public problem. Sufficient physical activity during childhood or adolescence is important to prevent osteoporosis during adulthood as childhood or adolescence is the critical period for bone development. Currently, there were no valid studies in Malaysia that carried out on schoolchildren to examine the relationship between physical activity level and its association with bone health. The objective of this study was to study the physical activity level and its relationship with bone health among schoolchildren in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A total of 391 primary school students of different ethnicity aged 9 to 12 years old were recruited to participate this study. C-PAQ was utilized to collect the physical activity level of subjects. Mann-Whitney U test, independent T test and Pearson’s correlation was conducted to determine the association between physical activity level and bone density of schoolchildren. Mann-Whitney U test showed that there was significant difference between male and female in terms of C-PAQ score (U=15010.0, Z= -3.6 and p< 0.05). However, no significant difference of bone density between male and female subjects in independent T test (T= -1.3, df= 389 and p> 0.05). Pearson correlation test conducted in this study suggested that physical activity level was not statistically significant associated with bone density (r= -0.003, p> 0.05). In conclusion, this study found that there were no association between physical activity level and bone density among schoolchildren in Malaysia. One of the possible reasons for this outcome is that the frequency, duration and type of the physical activity carried out by our subjects was not able to improve their bone density. Besides that, it might caused by over- or under-reported results by the subjects.