Quality of life in the university community

effects of an eight-week walk program

Abstract

Objective: The research aimed to investigate the effects of eight weeks of walking on the QOL of servants and college students. Methods: 21 subjects of both genders participated in the research. At the end of the program, the participants were organized into groups, according to attendance (ASD) in the exercise sessions: G40M (ASD of 40% or more; n = 9); GA35 (ASD below 35%; n = 6) and SE (without exercise; n = 6). The walk was carried out at moderate to intense intensity. The differences between the pre and post moments were verified by the paired Wilcoxon test. The intergroup comparisons were verified by calculating the difference between the scores of the pre- and post-training moments [delta (Δ)], using the Wilcoxon test for independent samples. Results: In the analysis of the deltas, significant differences were found between the groups in the variables general health status and social aspects. However, these differences occurred due to the reduction of these domains in GA35, and not due to significant improvement in G40M. Therefore, factors not measured in the survey (personal, academic and/or professional) negatively affected the QOL of GA35, which may also have been a reason for low ASD in exercise sessions. Conclusion: Concludes that the walk performed on campus was not efficient for the significant improvement of QOL, which may be a result of the low attendance of the participants.