A Survey of Physical Activity Levels of Certified Athletic Trainers

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To determine the self-reported physical activities of certified athletic trainers (ATCs), both at work and at leisure. DESIGN AND SETTING: We used the Baecke Questionnaire of Habitual Physical Activity and also asked for demographic information, including employment setting, years of experience, education level, and position. SUBJECTS: The questionnaire was sent to 1200 randomly selected ATCs in the Mid-America Athletic Trainers' Association; the return rate was 53%. MEASUREMENTS: We used means, standard deviations, and ranges to describe the age, total fitness index, work, and leisure and sport indexes of men and women subjects. Independent t tests were used to compare the mean total activity index between men and women within this study and with previous studies. We examined differences in activity indexes by employment setting, position, and age with one-way analysis of variance and Fisher pairwise comparison tests. Two-way chi(2) analysis was used to determine the relationship between activity level and employment setting and position. Statistical significance was set at P =.05 for all analyses. RESULTS: Certified athletic trainers who work in a clinical setting had the highest mean total activity score at 9.1 points. Clinic ATCs scored significantly higher than high school ATCs and college ATCs. When compared by position, there were no significant differences among the mean total activity indexes; however, the mean work index of program directors was significantly lower than all other positions and the mean work index of high school and clinic ATCs was significantly higher than all other employment settings. CONCLUSIONS: Female ATCs scored significantly higher in total activity levels on the Baecke Questionnaire than their male counterparts. This is in contrast to the general population, investigated by other authors, in which men scored significantly higher than women on the same scale. Additionally, we compared the total activity levels by age, position, and employment setting. There was a significant difference by position only in the work index. The mean total index activity of the over-36-years-old group was significantly lower than all other age categories. There was no significant difference in mean total activity levels by employment setting.