INTRODUCTION:
A disturbing
trend in college student health is the reported increase in student stress
nationwide [1]. Stressors affecting students can be categorized as academic,
financial, time or health related, and self-imposed [2].
Academic stressors include the student's perception
of the extensive knowledge base required and the perception of an inadequate
time to develop it [3]. Students report experiencing academic stress at
predictable times each semester with the greatest sources of academic stress
resulting from taking and studying for exams, grade competition, and the large
amount of content to master in a small amount of time [4].Every student faces a certain amount of stress in study. The main
problem is how student muddle through with their stress and ultimately excel
academically.The research aims to study the
positive correlation between physical exercise and academic performances; to
study the relation between physical exercise and reducing stress; to study the
subjects’ penchanttowards types of physical exercises; to study the duration of
physical exercise carried out by the subjects; and to study the beneficial
effects of physical exercise on different gender among the subjects.
There are a few hypotheses which state that there is a positive
correlation between physical exercise and academic performances as well as
students those do physical exercise can reduce their academic stress by
choosing different types of physical exercises.As schools everywhere strive to improve the academic performance of their
students, hence cut the physical education and recess periods to leave more
time for sedentary classroom instruction. A sensible new report from the
Institute of Medicine, a unit of the National Academy of Sciences, shows how
shortsighted this trend can be. It found that exercise can significantly
improve children’s cognitive abilities and their academic performance, as well
as their health [5].
Apart from that, intensive exercise improves the
academic performance of teenagers, according to new research.The study, of
about 5,000 children, found links between exercise and exam success in English,
Maths and Science. It found an increase in performance for every extra 17
minutes boys exercised, and 12 minutes for girls. The study by the universities
of Strathclyde and Dundee found physical activity particularly benefited girls'
performance at science. The researchers postulated this could be a chance
finding or reflect gender differences in the impact of physical activity on the
brain. Children who carried out regular exercise, not only did better
academically at age 11 but also at 13 and in their exams at 16, the study
suggested[6].
An emerging body of multidisciplinary literature
has documented the beneficial influence of physical activity engendered through
aerobic exercise on selective aspects of brain function. Human and non-human
animal studies have shown that aerobic exercise can improve a number of aspects
of cognition and performance. Lack of physical activity, particularly among
children in the developed world, is one of the major causes of obesity.
Exercise might not only help to improve their physical health, but might also
improve their academic performance. This review examines the positive effects
of aerobic physical activity on cognition and brain function, at the molecular,
cellular, systems and behavioral levels. A growing number of studies support
the idea that physical exercise is a lifestyle factor that might lead to
increased physical and mental health throughout life[7].
According to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC), regular physical activity in childhood and adolescence has
many significant benefits, including helping to build healthy bones and
muscles, improving strength and endurance and increasing self-esteem. But
statistics from the CDC show that in 2011, only 29% of high school students
participated in 60 minutes of physical activity a day - the amount of activity
recommended by the US Department of Health and Human Services. Researchers from
the UK say that if their findings - published in the British Journal of Sports
Medicine - are confirmed through further research, it could present significant
implications for public health and education policy. The research team analyzed
a sample of 5,000 children who were a part of a children of the 90s study. The
children, aged 11, were required to wear an accelerometer on an elasticated
belt for a period of 3-7 days, in order for the researchers to monitor their
daily duration and intensity of physical activity[8].
The connection between school sports and
intellectual achievement has been a long-standing issue since Davis and Cooper
first reported a positive association between school sports participation and
academic achievement. It remains the subject of recent investigations. The
competitive dimension of most sports introduces particular problems, even in
the school context, as the educational dimension tends to be relegated to a
secondary level. The literature comprises mainly cross-sectional data and the
results are more equivocal than for PA; unfortunately, most of the earlier
studies did not control for biases common to athletic and academic
achievements. Data from the longitudinal Maryland Adolescent Development in Context
Study included 67% African-Americans and 33% European-Americans; it found that
participation in extracurricular PA was a significant predictor of better
academic results and of higher academic expectations. Furthermore, sports
participation by 8th grade African-American males resulted in aspirations to
continue their studies toward college, with less likelihood of acting
inappropriately in school. In their female counterparts, sports participation
also resulted in higher aspirations and in a reduction of absenteeism[9].
Physical activity is associated with improved
affective experience and enhanced cognitive processing. Potential age
differences in the degree of benefit, however, are poorly understood because
most studies examine either younger or older adults. The study examined age
differences in cognitive performance and affective experience immediately
following a single bout of moderate exercise. Participants (144 community
members aged 19 to 93) were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions:
(a) exercise (15 min of moderate intensity stationary cycling) or (b) control
(15 min completing ratings of neutral IAPS images). Before and after the
manipulation, participants completed tests of working memory and momentary
affect experience was measured. Results suggest that exercise is associated
with increased levels of high-arousal positive affect (HAP) and decreased
levels of low-arousal positive affect (LAP) relative to control condition. Age
moderated the effects of exercise on LAP, such that younger age was associated
with a drop in reported LAP post-exercise, whereas the effects of exercise on
HAP were consistent across age. Exercise also led to faster RTs on a working
memory task than the control condition across age. Self-reported negative
affect was unchanged. Overall, findings suggest that exercise may hold
important benefits for both affective experience and cognitive performance
regardless of age [10].
METHODOLOGY:
The study population are the future medical
professionals of UniSZA. The nature of study is cross
sectional with 100 sample size encompassing both genders with 3 different races
(Malay, Chinese and Indian) from both pre-clinical and
clinical medical students in UniSZA.
This research was conducted through questionnaires and a sample of 100 respondents is randomly selected from the targeted population
elements, male and female in 2:3 proportions, aged between 18-23 years old.
The survey was held in the MAIDAM hostel, Kuala Terengganu. Respondents
answered the questionnaires individually.
The questionnaires used open-ended
questions to assess the relationship between physical exercise
and academic performance among future medical professionals of UniSZA. No other personal information was collected.
Questionnaire of Student Participation in Sports and Academic
Performance Survey
We are UniSZA future professional students currently
doing a research on the positive correlation between physical exercise and
stress-free academic performance among UniSZA medical students. Our goal is to
correlate the participation in physical exercise with the student’s academic
performance.
Scope and
Limitation:
The main focus of our exploration is to find
out whether is there any long term positive effect on academic performance of
students in regard to the time spent for physical exercise and fitness. In the
questionnaire provided, it was gathered information such as students’ choice of
physical exercise, how long have they been active in sports and most vitally
their academic result.
The researchers did not explore any other
options that might have helped students to excel in their academics. Every
student may have their own way of releasing stress and method of study, but the
scope of research is only within the positive relationship between physical
exercise and the stress-free academic performance.
RESULTS AND ANALYSIS OF DATA:
Figure 1: Difference between
genders among subjects
Based on
the pie chart (Figure 1), there are 40 males and 60 females in the research.
Table
1: Number of students in every year
|
|
Male
|
Female
|
Total
|
|
Year 1
|
12
|
8
|
20
|
|
Year 2
|
10
|
10
|
20
|
|
Year 3
|
5
|
15
|
20
|
|
Year 4
|
11
|
9
|
20
|
|
Year 5
|
7
|
13
|
20
|
There
are 20 respondents from every year respectively being selected to answer the
questionnaire. There are 12 male and 8 female students from year 1, whereas 10
male and female from year 2. 5 male and 15 female students are chosen from year
3 and 11 male and 9 female students from year 4. Lastly, there are 7 male and
13 female students in year 5 (Table- 1).
Figure
2: Frequency of exercise
This figure 6 displays the
findings of whether exercise helping in releasing respondents stress. There is
68 respondents agree that exercise can release their stress. On the other hand,
there is 20 respondents disagree that exercise can release stress.
This
figure 7 illustrates the level of stress that released by doing exercise. There
are 28 respondents who choose level of good in releasing stress by doing
exercise. This is followed by 18 respondents who choose very well, 15
respondents who choose moderate, 12 respondents who choose excellent and 5
respondents who choose poor.
Table 5: Exercise helps in respondents’
academics
|
Exercise helps in respondents’ study
|
Number of respondents
|
|
Agree
|
32
|
|
Partially Agree
|
40
|
|
Disagree
|
16
|
Figure
7: Level of relief from stress through exercise.
This
table 5 displays the respond of respondents whether exercise benefits in
respondents’ study. There is 32 respondents agree that exercise help in their
studies whereas there is 40 respondents who partially agree that exercise help
in their studies. There are only 16 respondents who disagrees that exercise
help in their studies.
Interpretation of Data and Discussion:
The questionnaire consists of about 10 questions which
asked about the correlation between physical exercise and stress-free academic
performance among medical students in UniSZA.
In question number 1, majorities
of the respondents are female. Based of the pie chart 1, there are 20 females
more than male students among 100 medical students. But from the questionnaire
it is concluded that male students are more active in physical exercise than
female students. According to Ambikasingh et al., there is a strong correlation
between physical activity and school/college performance [11].Participation in physical
activity is positively related to academic performance in children. Because we
found only 2 high-quality studies, future high-quality studies are needed to
confirm our findings. These studies should thoroughly examine the dose-response
relationship between physical activity and academic performance as well as
explanatory mechanisms for this relationship.
Physical activity and sports are generally promoted
for their positive effect on children's physical health; regular participation
in physical activity in childhood is associated with a decreased cardiovascular
risk in youth and adulthood [12]. There is also a growing body of literature
suggesting that physical activity has beneficial effects on several mental health
outcomes, including health-related quality of life and better mood states [12].
In addition to the positive physical and mental health
impact of physical activity, there is a strong belief that regular
participation in physical activity is linked to enhancement of brain function
and cognition,[13] thereby positively influencing academic performance. There
are several hypothesized mechanisms for why exercise is beneficial for
cognition, including (i) increased blood and oxygen flow to the brain[14]; (ii)
increased levels of norepinephrine and endorphins, [15,16] resulting in a reduction of stress and an
improvement of mood
[17]; and (iii) increased growth factors that help to create new nerve cells
and support synaptic plasticity [18,19].
Besides these suggested physiological effects, regular participation in
sport activities may improve children's behavior in the classroom, increasing
the odds of better concentration on the academic content of these lessons.
Although schools are able to offer unique
opportunities for structured physical activity for children, there is a
tendency to cut back physical education lessons. The increasing pressures to
improve academic scores often lead to additional instructional time for
subjects such as mathematics and language at the cost of time for being
physically active.
Given the suggested relationship and the ongoing
discussions on the replacement of physical education lessons by academic
subjects, we aimed to review the evidence on the longitudinal relationship
between these 2 variables.
In this present piece of survey,
the respondents have been asked about how frequent they are going to exercise
per week. About 12% of the respondents mentioned that they do not involve
themselves in physical exercise at all. Among them 28 respondents are going for
exercise 1 to 2 times per week. Most of them spend 3 to 4 times for exercise
per week. Only 16 respondents willing for exercise for more than 5 times per
week. Based on question 4, 32% of the respondents spend about 15 to 30 minutes
per each session of exercise and 48% for about 30 minutes to one hour time.
There is merely 8% respondents utilise more than one hour per each session of
exercise. Based on question 5, the top three choices of sport selected by
respondents are jogging, swimming and badminton. Jogging being the favourite
choice of sport is best explained by the factor that jogging do not require any
expensive equipment and it is a physical exercise that can be done anywhere and
easily accessible. Swimming and badminton being the second and third choice is
most probably due to there is a public badminton hall and swimming pool nearby
the hostel of respondents. Question 6
gathers the information about the initiation period of students indulging in
sports. From the research, it is found out that most of the students start
indulging in sports during the secondary school period. This is followed by
primary school and pre-university period. One of the reasons for this outcome
is the presence of compulsory subject co-curriculum in primary and secondary
school which is conducted by Ministry of Education. The students need to
involve in various types of sports or co-curriculum activities in order to
score well in this subjects. This compulsory subject is important for the
student to pursue their studies apart from their academic performances. Hence,
there is more students indulge in sports since primary or secondary schools. Based
on question 7, 8, and 9, the results of respondents from SPM until the current
medical programme grades are obtained to assess whether there is any
improvement in academic performance. Based on the data gathered, one can see
that there is a long term improvement in academic performance. This is probably
due to physical exercise being able to reduce students’ stress and in turn help
them to improve their academic performance. However, one must also take into
account that there are also some students who do not involve themselves in
physical exercise but are still being able to perform in their academics but
with minimum population. From the study, most of the students agree that
exercise can help in release their stress. As, all know, exercise such as yoga,
meditation and TaiChi can help to relax our body as well as our minds. In
contrast, sports such as badminton, jogging and swimming can help us to
temporary leave our studies or jobs and fresh up our minds. In a nutshell,
exercise can help to relax the students’ minds and release their stress in
studies, and thus improve their academic performances.
From the
research, it is learnt that the level of stress among the students that can be
released by doing exercise is at the range of moderate to very good. Students
can release stress by many ways, such as listening songs, watching movie,
playing games and so on. From this study, it is found out that students agree
that exercise plays an important and crucial role in reducing their stress.
These correlation based findings are well in line with other research findings
[20 – 24].
Evidence from the studies
included in the present systematic survey suggests that there is a significant
positive relationship between physical activity and academic performance.
Nevertheless, we must stress that only 2 of 14 studies were rated as being of
high methodological quality, which is the minimum number of studies needed for
“strong evidence.” However, both high-quality studies supported our hypothesis
of physical activity being positively related to academic performance in
children [25].
Two previous reviews[26, 27] have
studied the influence of physical activity on academic performance. Trudeau and
Shephard[26] present an overview of the literature on the relationship between
physical activity in the school setting and several outcome measures, including
academic performance. Based on quasi-experimental data, they report that
physical education programs demand a substantial reduction in time allocated
for academic tuition. Because the children's academic performance did not
change, they conclude that learning efficiency had improved. Furthermore,
Trudeau and Shephard report that cross-sectional studies generally indicate a
positive association between physical activity and academic achievement.
The review by Taras[27] argues that
there may be some acute beneficial effects of physical activity, but the
long-term improvement of academic achievement is not well established. Taras
concludes that the acute cognitive benefits of physical activity may adequately
compensate for time spent away from academic areas.
CONCLUSION:
In conclusion, practicing physical
exercise can benefit students to achieve better in their academics. From the
data gathered, it is postulated that males are more active in physical exercise
than females. Majorities of the students start practicing physical exercise
during their secondary school period. Most of them spend their time exercising
3 to 4 times a week for around 30 minutes to 1 hour per session of exercise.
Students exercise preference is influenced by the location and equipment needed
to play in the sports. Therefore, jogging, swimming and badminton is the top
three sports chosen by students because they are easily accessible. From this
research itcould also behypothesized that most of the students agree that
physical exercise can help them to reduce stress and also increase their
academic performance.
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Appendix-1:
Questionnaire
Please take a few minutes to
answer the following questions. Please tick in the appropriate boxes and thank
you for your involvement.
1.
What is your gender?
Male Female
2.
Currently studying in year
1
2 3 4 5
3.
How frequent do you go to exercise
None 1
– 2 times per week 3 – 4 times per
week
More than 5 times per week
4.
What is the duration of exercise per session
15 – 30 minutes 30 – 60 minutes More than 1 hour
5.
Type of exercise you prefer
Yoga
Meditation TaiChiSilat Taekwondo Futsal Badminton Swimming Aerobics Jogging Cycling
Others (Please Specify)
_________________________
6.
When do you start indulging in sports
Primary school Secondary school
Pre-university level University
7.
What is your SPM result
__________________________( Please
list )
8.
What is your result in matriculation or any
pre-university programme
CGPA: _____________
9.
What is your result obtained in UniSZA medical
programme
Year 1: ______Year 2: _____Year 3:
_____Year 4: ________
Does exercise helps you to release
your stress? (If yes, please select
the level)
Yes No
(If
yes, please select the level)
Poor Moderate Good Very Good Excellent
10.
Do exercise helps you in your study
Agree PartiallyAgree Disagree
