Background. By leading a healthy lifestyle, medical students exert a positive influence on themselves and their future patients. The aim of the study was to compare the attitudes towards physical activity in future German and Italian physicians.
Material and methods. The study involved 100 Italian and 100 German students aged from 19 to 24 years old. The research findings were drawn from Eurobarometer 72.3, which surveyed the participants on a set of questions regarding their physical activity. The chi-squared test (ᵪ2) and the Mann–Whitney U test were used for the statistical analysis.
Results. Only 4% students demonstrated high physical activity index. The Italian students usually practised sports outdoors (30% men and 26% women) or at a fitness centre (52% men and 30% women), whereas the German students exercised at a fitness centre (40% males and 64% females) or at university facilities (30% males and 24% females). There were some statistically significant values (p=0.000398). The most common factors that caused physical inactivity in medical students from both nations included: lack of time, no friends to do sports with, no sense of purposefulness of exercise and aversion to competition (p=0.000009). The German participants were more interested in sports than their Italian peers (p=0.000018).
Conclusions. Medicinal students should be more physically active because they will promote a healthy lifestyle when counselling their patients. Free access to sports grounds at the university might also encourage them to spend more their leisure time actively.