Evaluation of health-related behaviours of physiotherapy students as amateur combat sports and martial arts practitioners

Introduction. Lifestyle is one of the main factors in maintaining health and psychophysical fitness. Objective. The aim of this study was to assess the health behaviour of physiotherapy students practising sports and martial arts in comparison with other students. Material & methods. The study included 763 first-year physiotherapy students (48 combat sports and martial practitioners) from Warsaw Medical University. Research tools were: the Juczynski Health Behaviours Inventory, the International Physical Activity Questionnaire and the author's own survey. Results. The students were characterized by an average level of health behaviour (80.23 on average). Women's results were significantly higher than men's (p<0.01). The total result of health behaviours achieved by amateur athletes and martial arts practitioners was higher than that of the other groups. Conclusion. Physically active people were more concerned about a healthy lifestyle than inactive people. However, the highest level of health behaviour was characteristic of sports and martial arts adepts.