Physical activity level and health-poromoting life-styles are two important interrelated topics under examination. Health-promoting life-styles include activities that are focused on improving the level of well-being. Physical activities take an important role in well-being. The focus of these activities is on the development of positive potential for physical, social, mental, intellectual or spiritual health (Ebem, 2007). Considering this multi-dimensional structure of health promotion (e.g. physical, social, mental, and intellectual), the researchers identified six health-promoting behaviors. These are social support, life appreciation, health responsibility, stress manage-ment, nutrition, and exercise (physical activity) behaviors (Walker et al., 1987; Walker and Hill-Polerecky,  1996; Physical Activity and Public Health, 1995; Esin, 1997). Therefore, it is generally accepted that physical activity (PA) can improve quality of life and is a critical component in reducing or eliminating health disparities through lowering heartbeat rate and blood pressure at rest; reducing hypertension and blood glucose; decreasing fat mass; increasing lean body mass, bone mass, bone strength and muscle strength; preventing arthritis, some types of cancer and type 2 diabetes (Kramer et al., 1996; WHO, 2010; Turkish National Burden of Disease, 2004). There is also evidence that regular PA may reduce or prevent mild or moderate depression (Y?ld?r?m, 2010). Further, with developing technology, many individuals pursue sedentary activities and become physically less active. Sedentary life-style leads to a greater risk of developing coronary heart disease, hypertension, high blood lipid profile, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and some forms of cancer, like colon and breast cancer (Turkmen et al., 2013).

Several studies found some socio-demographic variables to be related to the practice of health behaviors (Be?er et al., 2007). Duffy et al. (1986) found that age and education affected healthy life-style behaviors. More-over, with increase in age, education, work experience, status, and income, health-promoting behaviors also increased. Kuster and Fong (1993) reported that age, education, and income play important roles in promoting healthy life-style behaviors. Walker et al. (1987) stated that workers received the highest scores on self-actualization and exercise, but that they got low scores on health responsibility and stress management. Similar to this finding, Esin (1997), in her study on 450 workers, established that workers had a moderate level of healthy life-style behaviors. In addition, physical activity and exercise play important roles in prevention and improvement of mild to moderate depressive disorders, anxiety, and stress management. Regular physical activity and exercise help improve physical fitness of individuals and, therefore, promote a healthy life-style. Physical fitness is the ability of an individual to perform occupational, recreational and daily activities without becoming unduly fatigued and has components, like aerobic fitness, muscular fitness, flexibility, and body composition. However, in order for the exercise to improve physical fitness of an individual, the exercise program should have standardized principles (ACSM, 2011; Heyward, 1997; Turkmen et al., 2013)

Previous studies in health-promoting behaviors indicated a high level of risky health behaviors in the university academic staff. Specifically, sedentary life-styles and low physical activity level were the most critical findings from these studies. Other studies examining the physical activity behavior as a health-promoting factor found that physical activity level dramatically decreases from high school to the university years (Ebem, 2007). Goldfield et al. (2012) pointed out the importance of gaining healthy life-style behaviours during preschool years. Although health-promoting behaviors of the university academic staff were examined in several studies, there is a lack of knowledge about those behaviors of the students who have just entered the university. Moreover, there have been limited studies on health-promoting behaviors, such as health responsibility, self-actualization,   health   control,  stress  management, nutrition, and exercise; also, very few health-promoting programs have been developed in Turkey (Be?er et al., 2007). The objective of this study was to examine the health-promoting behaviors, especially the physical activity levels of the academic staff in Bart?n University to determine the relationship between healthy life-style behaviors and physical activity level in the study subjects.

Statistical analyses

Means and standard deviations are given as descriptive statistics, and the relationship between healthy life-style behaviors and physical activity level was evaluated by Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Analysis. All analysers were executed in SPSS for Windows (version 16.0) and the level of statistical significance was set at p<0.05.

The healthy life-style behaviors and physical activity level of academic staff in Bart?n University as assessed in this study are displayed in Tables 1 and 2, respectively. Table 3 shows the correlations between healthy life-style behaviors and physical activity level.

Table 1 shows the healthy lif-stye behaviors of the academic staff in Bart?n University. According to this table, the highest rate was reached in self-actualization sub-scale, and the lowest rate in exercise. This finding depicts the contradictory attitude of academic staff towards exercise.   

According to Table 2, the academic staff in Bart?n University is in minimally active group.

Results of Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Analyses indicated significantly positive correlations between total physical activity level and exercise (r=0.52; p<0.01) and healthy life-style behaviors (r=0.47; p<0.01) in the study subjects. There was no significant correlation between healthy life-style  behaviors  and  sport  index  of physical activity questionnaire (p>0.05). The findings of the present study indicated that healthy life-style behaviors were not an indicator of physical activity level of academic staff in the Bart?n University of Turkey. 

This study explored the relationship between physical activity levels and healthy life-style behaviors of academic staff in Bart?n University. It is important to find out the relationship between physical activity and healthy life-style behavior as the results would convey the need for more efficient applications of physical activities in campus life. Physical activity is defined as any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that requires energy expenditure. Physical inactivity (lack of physical activity) has been identified as the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality (6% of deaths globally). Regular physical activity and exercise help improve physical fitness (aerobic fitness, muscular fitness, flexibility, and body composition) of individuals and, therefore, promote a healthy life-style (Özkan, 2011). Also, regular physical activity and exercise help improve physical fitness of individuals, thus promoting a healthy life-style.

Physical fitness is the ability of an individual to perform occupational, recreational and daily activities without becoming unduly fatigued and has components, like aerobic fitness, muscular fitness, flexibility, and body composition. However, in order for the exercise to improve physical fitness of an individual, the exercise program should have standardized principles (ACSM, 2011; Heyward, 1997). Many of the previous researches have already outlined the positive relationship between academic success and physical activity in the literature (Chomitz et al., 2009; Logan et  al., 2013; Tagoe and Dake, 2011; Tomporowski et al., 2008; Turkmen et al., 2013). However, with developing technology and inten-sive workload, many individuals in academic institutions pursue sedentary activities and become physically inactive (Pirincci et al., 2008). Sedentary life-style leads to a greater risk of developing coronary heart disease, hypertension, high blood lipid profile, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and some forms of cancer, like colon and breast cancer. Many studies reported that engaging in physical activity and exercise on regular basis lowers blood pressure, improves lipoprotein profile, C-reactive protein, and other CHD biomarkers, enhances insulin sensitivity, and plays an important role in weight management (Ay et al., 2012; Knechtle, 2004; Macauley, 1994; Vail, 2005). In addition, physical activity, exercise, and healthy life-style play important roles in the prevention and improvement of mild to moderate depressive disorders and anxiety (Tsai and Liu, 2012).

The present study depicted that academic staff in Bart?n University are minimally active in terms of physical activity level and have an average score in healthy life-style behaviors. This finding is almost in line with the results of Turkish National Burden of Disease Report (2004), which highlighted that 35% of the male and 71% of the female population in Turkey have healthy life-style behaviors. More specificaly Pirincci et al.(2008) and Guler et al. (2008) reached similar findings in their researches, which were carried on academic staffs in F?rat University and Cumhuriyet University in Turkey. Therefore this study once again confirmed that academic staff need to be motivated for physical activities and necassary facilities should be added to the plans of new university campuses.  

This study found strong positive correlations between physical activity levels and healthy life-style behavior subscales. Therefore, based on the citations used in this study, the incorporation of physical activity into campus life would have many beneficial effects on physical, mental, social, and psychological well-being of the academic staff. Physical activity facilities of the universities and the awareness level of the academic staff about these were found to be an important factor for them to participate in physical activity of any kind. 

The findings of this study were taken from a research project which was financially supported by Bart?n University. The author is thankful to the academic staff who participated voluntarily in this research.

The author has not declared any conflict of interest.