Abstract:
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers and chronic
respiratory disease are one of the leading causes of deaths at global scale. Physical inactivity, unhealthy
diet, usage of alcohol and tobacco are the major risk factors of NCDs. Further, it was found that physical
inactivity is the fourth leading risk factor for the NCDs worldwide. Hence, the present study was
conducted to identify the influence of gender arid physical activity on the risk of prevalence of NCDs
among a sample of students of the Sabaragamuwa University. Three hundred and thirty nine students
(10% from whole student population), of age 23±2, years (Male: Female, 132:207) were selected using
stratified random sampling. Level of physical activity was determined by using World Health Organization
physical activity recommendations. BMI and the waist: hip ratio were calculated. Results revealed that
male students (81.88% ) were more physically active than female students (78.10% ). Further, it was
shown that, 5.97% (4/67) of physically inactive and 3.44% (9/261) of physically active Students had NCDs
risk. Active males (6.73% = 7/104) had a high risk than the females (1.27% = 2/157) due to their behavior
of using alcohol, tobacco, diet and family history. Physically inactive female (8.8% = 4/45) students had a
high risk than the male inactive students (0% = 0/22). When considering physically active and physically
inactive students, high percentage of risky students were in physically inactive group. Female physically
inactive students have a more risk of having NCDs than female physically active students. In conclusion,
this study found that physical inactive students have a greater NCDs risk and also females have a greater
NCDs risk than the males.
