Assessment of Knowledge, Physical Activity and Calcium Intake among Female University Students

Insufficient calcium intake and being physically inactive lead to osteoporosis. This study aimed to assess the level of knowledge about osteoporosis, physical activity levels and their correlation with calcium intake. 276 female undergraduate students participated in this study. A set of questionnaires was distributed. Majority students had low knowledge (76.1%), moderate physical activity level (47.1%) and did not meet the recommended calcium intake (79.0%). There was a moderate to strong positive correlation but not significant between knowledge (r= 0.051, p=0.121) and physical activity (r = 0.081, p=0.181) to dietary calcium intake. In conclusion, students had poor knowledge about osteoporosis. Keywords: calcium; dietary; female; osteoporosis eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2023. The Authors. Published for AMER & cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), College of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v8i24.463