The study of medical students' attitudes toward exercise for health promotion in Phramongkutklao College of Medicine.

BACKGROUND Phramongkutklao College of Medicine is a military medical school and also a health promotion school. As a result, encouraging these medical students to have good attitude toward exercise is considered an important mission for the college. OBJECTIVES To study the attitudes of medical students at Phramongkutklao College of Medicine about exercise for health promotion. MATERIAL AND METHOD This survey research was carried out in 382 medical students in Academic Year 2008 using questionnaires including personal information, attitude testing and open-ended questions. Statistical analysis was conducted using descriptive analysis: percentage and mean and comparative analysis: t-test and F-test. RESULTS The overall attitudes of medical students toward exercise were good. The attitudes of the medical cadets were better than those of the civilian medical students. The attitudes and also knowledge about exercise of the higher-year students were generally better than those of the lower-year ones. The attitudes of healthy medical students were higher than those of unhealthy ones. No significant difference in attitude was found between male and female students and between those with different Body Mass Indexes (BMI) and those with different in exercise duration and frequency. CONCLUSION The overall medical students' attitudes toward exercise for health promotion in Phramongkutklao College of Medicine were good. The influencial factors were found to be status of medical students, stage of medical study and health status.