Physical activity and movement quality among health sciences students: an exploratory cross-sectional study

University students often sit for long periods while engaging in variable physical activity (PA). Whether higher PA relates to better movement quality is unclear in Middle East settings. This exploratory cross-sectional study examined associations between PA and Movement quality in health-sciences undergraduates and reported self-reported sitting time from the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) sitting item (not a validated sedentary-behavior measure).

Students (N = 70; 58.6% female) completed the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF; reported as Metabolic Equivalent of Task (MET) minutes per week) and an in-person Functional Movement Screen (FMS; seven tasks; total score 0-21). The primary model regressed FMS total on log-transformed PA, adjusting a priori for sex, Body Max Index (BMI), daily sitting hours, and academic major (Physical Therapy vs other). A secondary model examined the odds of FMS < 14. Exploratory component analyses used false discovery rate (FDR) control. Daily step counts from heterogeneous personal devices were treated as exploratory and excluded from primary models.

A total of 70 students were included in the analysis, of whom 55.7% scored below 14 on the FMS. The average physical activity level was 3,249.17 ± 2,425.61 MET-min/week, and the mean FMS score was 13.21 ± 2.21. In the adjusted linear model, physical activity was not significantly associated with total FMS score (β = 0.49, 95% CI [-0.18-1.16], p = 0.146). In the adjusted logistic model, physical activity was also not significantly associated with having an FMS score below 14 (OR = 0.61, 95% CI [0.31-1.21], p = 0.157). BMI showed a borderline, non-significant association with FMS < 14 (OR = 1.14, 95% CI [0.99-1.31], p = 0.072). In exploratory component-level analyses, no FMS component remained statistically significant after FDR correction.

Physical activity was not significantly associated with movement quality after adjustment for sex, BMI, sitting time, and academic major. These findings suggest that physical activity alone may not independently explain variation in FMS scores in this sample.