Investigation of the relationship of physical activity levels and academic success of students at University level in Rize

The aim of this research is to reveal the relationship between the physical activity levels of university students in Rize and their academic achievements. In addition, another aim of this research is to investigate whether the demographic characteristics of the participants in the research make a difference on their physical activity levels. The universe of this study consists of university students studying in Rize in the 2021-2022 academic year. The sample of the study, on the other hand, consists of a total of 469 university students selected according to the random method on a voluntary basis. The research group consists of students studying at university in Rize. Data Collection tool consists of two parts. In the first part, the "National Physical Activity Questionnaire (Short Form)" consisting of 7 questions created by the researcher to determine the general characteristics of the subjects and 7 questions in the second part was used. Windows SPSS 26.0 Statistics program was used for statistical tests. As statistical tests, first of all, normality tests were applied and normality test was performed by looking at the kurtosis and skewness values of the data. While the independent sample t-test was used for pairwise comparisons to data with normal distribution, the one-way ANOVA test was used to compare groups of three or more. In case of a difference as a result of the ANOVA test, Tukey-HSD difference analysis was used. While Mann Whitney U was applied for pairwise comparisons to the data that did not have a normal distribution, the Kruskal Wallis test was applied for the comparison of groups of three or more. The groups that were found significant as a result of the Kruskal-Wallis test were determined with the multiple comparison test. Finally, the relationship between the students' general weighted grade point averages and their physical activities was tested with the Spearman correlation test. When the Research Evidence was examined, significant differences were found in the physical activity levels of the participants in terms of age, gender, school type, school location, place of residence, and family economic status. In addition, The study observed that there was no significant relationship between the general grade point averages of the participants and their physical activity levels. As a result, it was seen that male students who is studying at the university level had higher physical activity levels than female students, those studying in the faculty of sports sciences than those studying at other faculties, and those residing in the center had a higher level of physical activity than those residing in the districts. Keywords: Physical Activity Level, Academic Achievement, MET