Reasons to exercise among college men from Argentina, Brazil, United States of America and France

Resumen

This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between reasons for exercising, the body mass index and concerns about exercise routine, food and appearance among male college student from Argentina, Brazil, France and the USA. Five hundred sixty nine male college students (18-30 years old) answered an online questionnaire composed of sociodemographic questions, nutritional status, physical exercise data and eating attitudes. The effect of the country, type of exercise and reasons for exercising over other variables were evaluated by generalized linear models; and the evaluation of categorical variables associations was done by Pearson Chi-square Test. The interaction’s effect of the country and the main reasons for exercising over the concerns about food and appearance was greater than the effect of each variable individually (r² = .051; p < .05), and it was also observed with regard to BMI (r² = .073; p < .05). Our results showed that there were some similarities in the relationship between college students and physical exercise. However, the differences observed were related to the interactions of the country with the main reasons for exercising (or the main type of exercise) that showed the greatest effects over BMI and concerns about exercise routine, food and appearance.