Introduction

Physical activity is one of the most important determinants of a healthy lifestyle. Numerous scientific papers have been published on the role of physical activity in maintaining health and proper human development (Spriet, 2014; Mazurek, Lutosławska, Czajkowska, Żmijewski, 2016; Tarp et al. 2016; Żarski, Gorący, 2017). Lack of regular exercise has been shown to contribute to at least 20 chronic diseases, which include cardiovascular, respiratory, musculoskeletal, nervous system and metabolic disorders, or cancer (Vuori, 2004; Lavie, Ozemek, Carbone, Katzmarzyk, Blair, 2019). Numerous studies attest to the significant role of physical activity in counteracting the adverse consequences of the ageing process. Physical activity can also slow down the psychophysical deterioration (Chipperfield, 2008; Laskowska-Szcześniak, Kozak -Szkopek, 2013; Kubińska, Pańczuk, 2019). Physical activity has also been shown to improve mood and self-esteem and to reduce anxiety and depression (Harris, Cronkite, Moos, 2006; Raglin, Wilson, Galper, 2012).

As is the case in other Central and Eastern European countries, citizens of Poland are highly physically inactive (Drygas, Gajewska, Zdrojewski, 2021). According to Eurostat’s Eurobarometer (Eurostat, 2022), almost two-thirds of men and as many as three-quarters of women in Poland do not undertake any systematic physical activity. The proportion of people who say they that have never exercised or practised sports has increased (from 42% in 2019 to 46% in 2021) across Europe, which is a continuation of the gradual trend of decreasing physical activity analysed by Eurobarometer since 2009. In 2021, Poland was among the eight European countries with the lowest percentage of people exercising or practising any sports. Only 65% of Poles exercised (Eurostat, 2022). Many studies also emphasise that the older a person gets, the less intensely they participate in physical activity (Piątkowska, 2012; Sokołowska, FilipowiczChomko, 2018).

Modern society mostly spends its leisure time passively and, unfortunately, has less and less free time (Kwilecki, 2011). Kolny (2016) has analysed changes in the ways of spending leisure time between 1976 and 2003 and noted that the leisure budget of Poles has decreased significantly over the analysed years (by as much as 4 hours and 31 minutes per day). Among all leisure activities analysed, the time spent watching TV and on religious practices increased, while the time spent on physical exercise decreased significantly (by more than one hour per day). In turn, the leisure budget did not change between 2003 and 2013 compared to previous surveys, but the proportion of people using the internet and watching TV increased significantly (Kolny, 2016). Hołub and Dmitruk (2024) compared the leisure activities of women studying in full-time and weekend modes and noted that female students, irrespective of their mode of study, most often had between 1 and 3 hours of leisure time per day. Such time was mostly spent in a passive way.

Medical staff in healthcare facilities should play an important role in promoting a healthy lifestyle. Doctors and nurses should educate patients about the health-promoting benefits of physical activity and be role models in their personal lives. (Fie, Norman, While, 2013; Nowicki et al., 2017; Mendrycka, Nowak, Janiszewska, Saracen, Kotwica, 2019). In the course of their studies, future health professionals should learn how to spend their leisure time appropriately and set aside some time for physical activity (Sochacka, Wojtyłko, 2013; Skowrońska et al., 2016). Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate physical activity and other leisure activities of first-year nursing students in relation to the age of the subjects.

Material and methods

The study was conducted in the spring of 2023 and involved 184 first-year nursing students at the Mazovia Academy of Applied Sciences in Siedlce. kowska, 2012; Sokołowska, Filipowicz-Chomko, 2018). Respondents studied in the weekend mode (Friday to Sunday). Male students were excluded from the study due to their very small number.

The method used in the study was a diagnostic survey. The subjects were divided into three groups according to their age (group I: 18–30 years, group II: 31–40 years, group III: over 40 years). The numbers of respondents in the separate groups are shown in Table 1.

The physical activity of the subjects was assessed using the short version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). The physical activity questionnaire (IPAQ) included seven questions on the type of physical activity, the number of days per week and time spent on a given type of physical activity, and the number of hours spent sitting during the seven days preceding the survey. Energy expenditure in each type of physical activity (total activity, intense activity, moderate activity and walking) is presented in units of MET-min/week. One MET represents basal energy expenditure assuming the oxygen consumption of 3.5 ml/min/1 kg of body weight. A specific multiple of this unit is assigned to each type of exercise. Multiplying the coefficient attributed to a physical activity by the number of days of activity per week and the time spent on the activity on analysed weekdays and non-working days yielded the mean values of energy expenditure of the surveyed women over the seven days preceding the survey (Biernat, Stupnicki, Gajewski, 2007).

The second issue analysed in the study was how respondents spent their leisure time. Information on the amount of leisure time on weekdays and days off from university, the amount of time spent watching TV, playing computer games, browsing the Internet, meeting friends, reading books, listening to music, and preparing for classes and other forms of self-education was obtained using a self-administered survey questionnaire. The survey also included questions about the amount of leisure time spent being physically active on weekdays and days off from university, and preferred forms of leisure time physical activity including time spent participating in organised sports with a coach, instructor or other instructor. The survey questionnaire consisted of 19 questions, 17 of which were closed and 2 were semi-open, with an opportunity to mention preferred forms of physical activity other than those listed, and the type of organised physical activity in which the respondents participated.

The results obtained were statistically analysed by calculating arithmetic means and standard deviations for the numerical data, and by calculating the number of people choosing the proposed response and their percentage in relation to the number of all responses given in the analysed group in the case of the quantitative data. The statistical significance of differences between the results obtained by the subjects in separate age categories was assessed using the following tests: for variables expressed on the quantitative scale, due to the lack of the normal distribution of variables, the Kruskal-Wallis test was used; for variables expressed on the ordinal scale, the Kruskal-Wallis test; for variables expressed on the nominal scale, the Pearson χ2 test. Calculations were performed using STATISTICA 13.3.

Results

While characterising the respondents on the basis of the information provided in the introductory part of the survey questionnaire, it was noted that the majority of female students in the first year of nursing at the Mazovia Academy of Applied Sciences in Siedlce were over 30 years of age. Only 23.9% of the respondents were categorised as group I (18–30 years), more than half of the respondents were between 31 and 40 years’ old, and 18.48% were over 40 years’ old (tab. 1).

An analysis of the collected material made it possible to determine the amount of leisure time the respondents had (tab. 2 and 3). As the respondents mostly worked on weekdays, they did not have much free time. The women in Group I were most likely to say that the amount of such time averaged between 1 and 3 hours per day, while almost half of the respondents in the other two groups had less than 1 hour of free time that they could devote exclusively to themselves. Some people said that they had no free time at all on weekdays (11.36% in group I, 12.26% in group II and 14.71% in group III). Differences between the age of respondents and the amount of leisure time were found to be statistically significant. A post-hoc test demonstrated that these correlations occurred between Groups I and II and Groups I and III (tab. 2). It was noted that the amount of leisure time the respondents had increased during weekends. 31.82% of the respondents in Group I stated that they had between 3 and 5 hours of free time on weekend days, 29.55% of respondents selected the “between 1 and 3 hours” option and 22.73% of respondents indicated that they had more than 5 hours of free time on weekend days. In Group II, more than a third of the respondents chose the “1 to 3 hours” option (32.08% of the answers given), but there was still a large proportion of respondents with less than 1 hour of free time. Changes in the amount of leisure time between weekdays and weekends were also observed in Group III. The “1 to 3 hours” option was selected by 20.59% of the respondents and the same percentage of respondents indicated that they had more than 5 hours of free time (none of the respondents in this group selected this response option regarding weekdays).

The ways in which respondents used their le isure time were also analysed. Passive leisure activities predominated among the answers chosen. Respondents in Group I spent the most time using social networking sites, texting and playing computer games. Almost half of the respondents in this group allocated between one and three hours a day to the above activities, regardless of whether it was a weekday or a weekend during which they attended university. The amount of time spent with friends increased on weekends in Group I. On weekdays, the most common answer was less than 1 hour dedicated to meeting friends, and almost half of the respondents indicated that they dedicated between 1 and 3 hours a day to meeting friends on weekends. Respondents in this group most often spent less than one hour a day on watching TV and films, reading books, listening to music and cultural entertainment, regardless of whether it was a weekday or a weekend. Respondents in groups II and III spent less of their leisure time than their younger counterparts in group I on social networking, texting and computer games (there were statistically significant differences with respect to the results in group I). The highest proportion of respondents from these groups ticked the “up to 1 hour” option, both on weekdays (53.77% from group II and 61.76% from group III) and on weekends (51.89% from group II and 64.71% from group III) (tab. 2 and 3). As in group I, respondents in groups II and III increased their time for meeting friends on weekends: the respondents in group II usually spent less than 1 hour a day on meeting friends on weekdays, and the proportion of respondents choosing the “1 to 3 hours” increased slightly during weekends. This was more pronounced in group III, where up to half of the respondents indicated that they had no time at all to meet friends on weekdays; on weekends, 41.18% of the respondents allocated between 1 and 3 hours a day to meeting with friends. The Kruskal-Wallis test demonstrated the significance of differences in the amount of time spent with friends between women in groups I and III. Respondents in groups II and III spent little of their leisure time watching TV and films and reading books, listening to music and other cultural entertainment. On weekends, this time did not exceed one hour per day, both for watching TV and films and for listening to music and other cultural entertainment. In Group II, no differences were noticed in the amount of time spent on these activities between weekdays and weekends. In group III, the highest percentage of respondents stated that they do not watch TV and films at all and do not listen to music on weekdays; as for the weekends, the respondents most often chose the “up to 1 hour” option, but 26.47% of respondents did not use these forms of leisure activities even on weekends (tab. 2 and 3).

Students usually devoted part of their time outside of university and work to prepare for classes. On weekdays, when there were no classes at the university and most of the female students surveyed were gainfully employed, the time spent to prepare for classes, for self-improvement and further training most often did not exceed one hour per day, except for the respondents in group III, where half of the respondents spent between one and three hours on these activities. 36.36% of the female students in group I and 44.34% in group II prepared for their classes for between 1 and 3 hours a day. On those weekends when classes were held, there was no noticeable change in the number of hours spent on preparation for the classes, self-improvement and further training compared to days when classes were not held (tab. 2 and 3).

An important topic analysed in the study was to find out to what extent the respondents spent their leisure time in an active way. In Group I, the majority of respondents did not devote more than 1 hour per day to physical exercise on weekdays, while the proportion of respondents choosing the “1 to 3 hours” option increased when it came to weekends. In Groups II and III, it was noted that a very large proportion of respondents did not spend their leisure time actively at all (more than 20% of women in Group II and more than 30% in Group III). These individuals were not physically active on either weekdays or weekends. Respondents in groups II and III, who spent at least part of their leisure time in an active manner, most often declared that they spent less than 1 hour per day being physically active, and only in group II did the proportion of those exercising between 1 and 3 hours per day increase on weekends compared to weekdays (Tables 2 and 3).

When analysing which forms of physical activity the women preferred, it was noted that they most often chose physical activity requiring the least physical effort: the respondents were most likely to walk and cycle. Among the youngest women (group I), 20.45% played team games, 22.73% swam and 20.45% danced. In the oldest group (group III), 26.47% of the subjects swam (tab. 4).

Respondents most often did not participate in organised sports activities – the highest number of people pursuing this form of physical activity was found in group I. Among those who participated in group activities under the supervision of a trainer, instructor or other activity leader, the duration of activities most often did not exceed 1 hour per week. 33.33% of the respondents in group I and 35.71% of the respondents in group II exercised for between 1 and 3 hours per week, and one or two subjects in each group exercised for more than 5 hours per week (tab. 5).

The International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) provided an assessment of the total energy expenditure of the women surveyed (both leisure and work-related and related to daily life) in the seven days preceding the survey. It also made it possible to estimate what the subjects’ energy expenditure was during intensive and moderate exertion and movement. While analysing the results of the study included in Table 6, the highest total energy expenditure and energy expenditure associated with intensive exercise were found in group I. The lowest average values in these types of exercise occurred in women from group III. In the case of total effort, statistically significant differences were found between the results in group I and the other two groups. Expenditure associated with moderate exercise was highest among the oldest women (group III) and lowest for the respondents in group II. The youngest women (from group I) had the highest average MET-min/week associated with walking, with statistically significant differences found only between this group and group III. The women in group III spent the most time sitting while those in group spent the least time doing it, but the differences obtained were not statistically significant (tab. 6).

Discussion

Our own research showed that women studying nursing in the weekend mode were mostly full-time employees and therefore did not have much free time. However, leisure time was used inappropriately as passive leisure activities prevailed. Similar observations have been noted in a number of research studies among medical students. Nursing (Sochacka, Wojtyłko, 2013), physiotherapy (Dziedzic, 2018) and medical (Grabowska, 2020) students spent most of their free time playing computer games, texting, browsing the internet, using social networks or meeting friends, acquaintances or family, while little time was spent on physical activity.

Nursing students from our own study tended to spend less than one hour per week being physically active. The highest proportion of those who were physically inactive was found among the oldest female students (over 40 years), i.e. more than a third of the respondents were not physically active either on weekdays or on weekends. Among respondents aged 31–40 years, 22.64% and 21.70% (on weekdays and weekends respectively) did not exercise. The physical activity of medical students (physiotherapy, nursing and midwifery) was also assessed in a study by Radosz, Tomaszewska-Kumeli, Paplaczyk and Gruszczyńska (2020) Nearly half of the studied midwifery and nursing students practised sports less than once a week and 13.9% of nursing students chose the answer “never”. A similar study was conducted by Chin, Nam and Lee (2016) among nurses in California. The study found that only 57% of nurses reported regular physical exercise practised at least two days a week. Negative relationships between the age of nursing staff and physical activity were found in the study by Stanisławska et al. (2017) and Zagroby et al. (2010). The majority of nurses surveyed by Zagroba et al. (2010) were aware of the positive impact of physical exercise on health, but as many as a third of the respondents explained that they did not exercise due to lack of free time and one in five respondents due to lack of financial resources. In turn, the study by Stanisławska et al. (2017) demonstrated that sociodemographic factors such as education and marital status significantly influenced physical activity: overall physical exercise measured in MET/min/ week was highest among nurses with higher medical education and among unmarried respondents.

Nursing students chose forms of physical activity requiring the least physical exertion. The majority of respondents walked or cycled. Similar forms of physical exercise were also undertaken by students in other health-related fields of study: physiotherapy (Dziedzic, 2018) and midwifery and cosmetology (Sochacka, Wojtyłko, 2018). Walking and cycling were also the preferred forms of physical activity for nurses working in their learned profession (Bergier, Bergier, Soroka, Kubińska 2010; Chuchra, Gorbaniuk, 2019), and cycling was the preferred form of physical activity for most Poles (Drygas et al., 2021; Sokołowska, FilipowiczChomko, 2018). This may be due to the fact that the above forms of exercise are the most accessible ones.

Nursing students should be particularly concerned about physical activity as one of the body’s basic needs, as they are going to promote pro-health behaviour among patients as part of their future profession. The University authorities should encourage students to engage in a variety of physical activities by providing adequate space and sports equipment. Students could exercise between their classes.

Conclusions

Respondents mostly spent their leisure time passively, using social networks, texting and playing on the computer.

The age of the subjects significantly differentiated the level of physical exercise of the nursing students: the youngest students exhibited the highest level of physical activity and the oldest students the lowest.

There were no intergroup differences in preferred forms of physical exercise: the majority of respondents, regardless of age, chose to walk or cycle.

Medical students, by virtue of their future profession, should pay more attention to being physically active and including various forms of physical exercise.