An Examination of the Impact of Regular Exercise Participation on Blood Platelet Parameters
4 Abstract: This study was conducted with a view to comparing blood platelet levels of athletes who do sports regularly in various branches at least for five years with those of sedentary university students. The study contained 36 voluntary students- 18 athletes doing sports in various branches and 18 sedentary university students- at the age interval of 20-22. Volunteers were selected among those who do not regularly take drugs, alcohol and any other harmful substance. After the volunteers were provided with information concerning the study, they were measured for their physical attributes such as body height and body weight and their blood samples were taken. Volunteers were warned not to take in any food or liquid after 22:00 PM in the night before blood samples were taken. Blood samples taken from the volunteers from their forearm antecubital area in line with hygiene rules were analyzed in the central laboratory by means of an auto-analyzer for haematological levels such as platelets (PLT), plateletcrit (PCT), Mean Platelet Volume (MPV) and Platelet Distribution Width (PDW). Independent samples t test was used in order to determine the difference among groups. p<0.05 value was accepted as significant. The study revealed that the differences in PLT, MPV and PCT levels among the groups were statistically significant (p<0.01). As a conclusion, despite the fact that red blood cells were within the reference interval, the positive difference in favour of athletes against sedentary students at the same age interval is considered to be owing to athletes' regular participation in exercise, life quality and nutrition habits.