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Mental health factors influencing physical activity among secondary school students: a comparison of ethnic minorities

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Abstract

Purpose

Physical activity can prevent diseases. This study is the first of its kind that explores the influences of mental health, demographic and lifestyle factors on physical activity among ethnic minority school-going adolescents. The country of interest is Malaysia, which is a fast-growing develo** country.

Methods

Data were extracted from the National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2017. Students aged 13–17 years were surveyed. Probit regressions were utilised to estimate the probability of being physically active. Analyses were stratified by ethnic minority groups.

Results

Stress was positively associated with physical activity among Indian students, but pairwise correlation tests showed that this association was insignificant. Depression reduced the probability of being physically active among Sabah native students. Form 1 and 2 Sabah and Sarawak native students were less likely to be physically active than their Form 5 peers. The probability of being physically active was greater among males of all the ethnic groups. Among Indians, while smoking reduced the probability of being physically active, alcohol drinking was associated with frequent participation in physical activity.

Conclusions

Mental health, demographic and lifestyle factors play an important role in determining level of physical activity among ethnic minorities. Intervention measures targeting ethnic minority students could benefit by taking into consideration these factors.

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Availability of data and materials

Data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request, subject to permission from the Ministry of Health Malaysia.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Director General of Health, Malaysia for his permission to use the data from the National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2017 and to publish this paper.

Funding

This research was supported by Universiti Utara Malaysia through Research Generation University Grant (SO Code: 21359).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics, Finance and Banking, College of Business, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010, Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia

    Yong Kang Cheah

  2. Sector for Biostatistics and Data Repository, National Institutes of Health, Ministry of Health Malaysia, No. 1, Jln Setia Murni U13/52, Seksyen U13, 40170, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

    Chee Cheong Kee & Mohd Azahadi Omar

  3. Special Research Centre, Institute for Medical Research, Ministry of Health Malaysia, Jalan Pahang, 50588, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Kuang Hock Lim

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Contributions

All persons who have made substantial contributions to the work are listed as authors in the manuscript. YKC: makes substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, and analysis and interpretation of data. YKC: participates in drafting the article and revising it critically for important intellectual content. CCK, HKL and MAO: give final approval of the version to be submitted and any revised version. All authors have approved the final article.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yong Kang Cheah.

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Conflict of interest

The authors have no competing interests to declare.

Ethical approval and Informed consent

This study obtained approvals from the Medical Research and Ethics Committee of the Ministry of Health Malaysia (NMRR-16-698-30042). School teachers distributed parent's consent forms to students' parents a week prior to the survey. Students who did not receive parental consent were not allowed to participate in the survey.

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Cheah, Y.K., Kee, C.C., Lim, K.H. et al. Mental health factors influencing physical activity among secondary school students: a comparison of ethnic minorities. Sport Sci Health 19, 1281–1290 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11332-023-01078-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11332-023-01078-4

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