Nearly three quarters of male students and half of female students used full

fat milk.  Females were nearly twice as likely to use low fat or skimmed milk

in comparison to males.  Males drank more milk than females in all years,

and consumption declined over the three years for both genders.  About

half of the male students and a quarter of the female students consumed a

pint or more of milk per day.  Overall, just over 6% of students reported

that they did not drink milk at all.

4.6 EXERCISE HABITS

Almost 70% of students described themselves as fairly to very physically

active.  Male students were more physically active than females (Figure 7).

Over half of the students participated in at least 20 minutes of moderate

exercise 3 or more times a week, which was a more common practice

among females than males (Table 11). One in four students engaged in

strenuous exercise 3 or more times a week, with twice at many males to

females. Regular strenuous exercise was more prevalent among first and

second year students than among third year students.  Thirteen per cent of

students took no regular exercise.

Figure 7:  Rating of Physical Activity Level of Students by gender

60

54

50

50

40

29

(%) 30

28

19

20

10

10

7

Males

4

Females

0

Very physically

Fairly active

Not very active

Not at all active

active

Half of all the students participated in sport, with twice as many males

participating as females, 71% to 36%.  The highest sport participation rates

were among first year (72%) and second year (74%) male students. Among

females, first year students had the highest numbers (42%) engaged in sport

participation.  Of those who participated in sport, half did so at their

college or university.  Forty three percent of students attended a gym or

leisure centre and of those, 60% indicated that it was at a college facility.

30