MA453 Physical Activity and Health (Spring 2024)

Introduction

The course focuses primarily on physical activity and health in the following two main areas:

 

• The association between regular physical activity, exercise, and health, that is, physical activity used in primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention.

• Health problems that are linked to sports practice and physical activity (e.g., asthma, menstrual disorders, and musculoskeletal disorders).

Learning outcomes

After completing the course, students should be able to:

 

• define and discuss the associations between sedentary time, physical activity/inactivity and chronic diseases and conditions.

• critically interpret, assess, evaluate, and present the results from epidemiological and experimental studies in the fields of physical activity and health.

• explain the guidelines for sedentary time and physical activity and the evidence base for the guidelines

• explains the prevalence and causes of certain health problems associated with the practice of sports and physical activity.

• communicate about professional issues within the field of physical activity and health, both with specialists, patients/practitioners/users and to the general public

• understand and critically evaluate research that is the basis for the choice of training methods, type of activity and dosage within the prevention and treatment of non-communicable diseases and conditions.

Learning methods and activities

Teaching will take place through regular lectures, group work, seminars with a lecturer present, student feedback, and group presentations. Student presentations vary in format (submission, oral, and posters). Between classes, the students will work with central topics in groups of 3-5 students.

Work requirements

Approved attendance and active participation in seminars are the requirements for the final exam. This includes submission of individual assignments/group assignments that are considered approved/ not approved.

 

The number of presentations and formats will be specified at the beginning of the course.

Assessment/exam

14-day individual home exam (essays). The topic of the essay will be drawn at random. The grading ranges from A-F.

 

The essay must be a maximum of 20 pages (1 ½ line spacing) + bibliography.

 

The essay will be delivered in WISEflow and run through a plagiarism control program.

Core literature

As we are in a transition phase between two systems, we refer to the Study Handbook 2023-2024 for literature for courses in the 2023-2024 academic year:https://www.nih.no/studier/program-og-emneplan-arkiv/2023-2024/.