Comparison of body composition and physical activity of nomadic and urban school students

The current and future well-being of children and adolescents are significantly threatened with lack of physical activity, poor diet and chronic obesity. The present study aimed to compare the body composition and physical activity of urban and nomadic students. 119 urban students with the mean age of 13.41±0.92 and 125 nomadic students with the mean age of 13.95±1.10 were selected randomly and anthropometric and physical activity indices were measured in them. The independent t-test was used to compare the difference between the two groups. A significant difference was found between urban and nomadic students in terms of the values of height, sitting height, weight, body mass index (BMI), waist hip ratio, body composition, sleeping, daily activity, exercise activity and working activity (physical activity). Urban students showed higher values in all the measured variables compared to rural students except for the physical activity rate and exercise rate, however, the negative correlation was found only in nomadic students between daily activities and physical activity rate with body fat percentage and BMI. In general, results of the present study showed that nomadic students had more favorable body composition compared to urban students which is probably due to more physical activity rate in them.