Examination of body mass i̇ndex and phisical activity levels of secondary school students studying in Van center

The purpose of this study is to examine the body mass index and physical activity status of middle school students studying in the city centre of Van. The research was conducted to a total of 596 students studying in the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades in 3 schools in the city centre of Van Province. 52.2% of the participants are girls with an average age of 12.59 ± 1.12. The analysis of the obtained data was carried out through the SPSS 25.0 for Windows package program. According to the findings obtained from the research, the rate of seriously underweight students was 6.4%, overweight students 6.9%, and obese students were 3%. It was determined that there was no statistically significant relationship between physical activity level and body mass index (P> 0.05). The difference between the gender variable of the participants and their body mass index was found to be statistically insignificant (P> 0.05). On the other hand, it was determined that female students' body mass index averages were relatively higher than male students. It was also determined that 0.3% of the participants were inactive (sedentary), 40.3% were active and 12.6% were quite active. On the other hand, a statistically significant difference was found between the gender variable and the physical activity level according to the findings (P <0.05). In addition, a statistically significant relationship was found between the age variable and physical activity level. In this context, it was determined that the participants with the highest physical activity score were students in the group of 13 years-old, while the participants with the lowest physical activity score were students in the group of 14 years-old. In conclusion, it has been determined that 40.3% of middle school students studying in the city centre of Van are physically active and have a body mass index value of 17.3 ± 3.5 on average.