What is Project Go? Project Go is a research study conducted to evaluate student physical activity, sitting, sleep, and mental health during the Go Dons Get Fit Challenge (a month long fitness challenge for faculty, staff and students).
Who conducted Project Go? Project Go was conducted by Dr. Sarah Camhi and Dr. Stephanie Cooper of the Kinesiology Department.
When did it occur? Project Go occurred in Fall semester 2021
What did Project Go find? Presented below are student research abstracts that were presented at Creative Activity and Research Day (CARD) at University of San Francisco on May 4th, 2022 by undergraduate research assistants. More information about CARD can be found at: https://myusf.usfca.edu/arts-sciences/card
“Effects of a university physical activity challenge on levels of anxiety, depression, stress, and perceived dependency of wearing a physical activity tracker” – Emily Jackson, Sarah Camhi, PhD and Stephanie Cooper, PhD Kinesiology
Many studies have researched the benefits of physical activity and well-being, which has led many universities to develop ways to promote physical activity engagement on campus. However, there is limited research on how engaging in campus activities promoting physical activity impacts mental health. Additionally, limited research has explored the impact of wearing a physical activity tracker and its potential to create dependency on wearing the device. The aim of this study was to understand the effects of a four week campus-wide physical activity challenge on levels of anxiety, depression, and stress in college students, as well as, potential dependency effects of wearing a physical activity tracker. For the duration of the challenge, 44 undergraduate and 6 graduate students (average age = 21.4 years) wore a physical activity tracker with limited feedback, and answered questionnaires regarding their anxiety, depression, stress, and their perceived dependency at the beginning, middle, and end of the challenge, and two weeks post-challenge. The results indicate that anxiety, depression, and stress did not change across time. Interestingly, significant interactions were revealed, such that individuals who wore an activity tracker before the study differed in their perceived dependency on wearing an activity tracker compared to those who did not wear one prior to the study. Further analyses must be conducted to see if there was a relationship between physical activity behavior and mental health measures, as well as activity tracker dependency.
“Changes in self-reported physical activity and sleep among university students enrolled in Go Dons Get Fit Health Promotion Program: PROJECT GO” – Eva Westbrook, Stephanie Cooper, PhD, Sarah Camhi, PhD Kinesiology
Background: Increasing physical activity levels has been associated with increased quantity and improved quality of sleep. Despite the known benefits, research has been limited for examining the effects of a physical activity health promotion program in a university setting on college-aged students. College-aged students are an important group to focus on due to their lack of meeting the physical activity recommendations and poor sleep. Thus, the purpose of this research was to examine the effects of a month-long university physical activity health promotion program on sleep. Methods: Students were eligible if they were at least 18 years old, a current in-person USF student during Fall 2021 semester, willing to participate in Go Dons Get Fit, be able to read and write in English and wear an activity monitor. Participants were given questionnaires via Qualtrics (online) before the start of the program, and at the end of the month-long (31 day) program. Physical activity was assessed by asking how many days per week they engaged in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and how many minutes per day. These values were multiplied together to get a mins/week of MVPA. Participants were also asked to describe their physical activity pattern throughout Go Dons Get Fit (ie., increased, decreased, stayed the same, etc). Sleep quantity and quality was quantified using the validated Pittsburgh Sleep Quality index (PSQI) questionnaire (duration, quality, latency, efficiency, medications, disturbances, daytime dysfunction). Measures were compared at baseline and at follow-up via paired t-tests to determine differences. Results: Participants with complete data were 21±5 years old, 13 % graduate and 87% undergraduate (22.5% freshman, 25% sophomore, 22.5% junior, 30% senior) 80% female and 20% male, 28% white, 50% asian, 22% other race/ethnicity (n=46). Approximately 48% were kinesiology majors. The most common physical activity pattern reported among participants was “no change” (54%), while 26% reported PA increased at first and then plateaued. There was a significant increase in self-reported sleep for hours/night with an average of (mean±SD) 6.34±1.25 at baseline and 6.72±1.22 at follow up (p=0.02), but no significant change for sleep total score which takes into account both quantity and quality (p=0.38). For the individual sleep subscores, there was a significant increase in sleep disturbance score of 0.94± 0.51 at baseline to 1.11±0.38 at follow up (p=0.03), but no other changes in sleep quality, latency, efficiency, disturbances, or daytime dysfunction. Conclusion: In summary, physical activity levels remained unchanged for the majority of participants. Sleep quantity increased with minimal changes in quality. Limitations of the study included a small sample size consisting of only one university. Further research could be conducted to see whether these results are confirmed with objective measures of PA and sleep.
“Student Engagement with University of San Francisco’s Go Dons Get Fit Health Promotion Program: PROJECT GO” – Romane Vigourou, Stephanie Cooper, PhD, Sarah Camhi, PhD Kinesiology
Background: PROJECT GO is a seven week long research study led by the Kinesiology department at the University of San Francisco which evaluated a health promotion program called Go Dons Get Fit. To date, no measures have been taken to evaluate the engagement of students for this program. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to 1) summarize demographic characteristics of participants and 2) report student engagement with the various health promotion program resources.
Methods: To be eligible to participate, students from the University of San Francisco had to be at least 18 years of age, be a current in-person USF student for Fall 2021, be willing to participate in the Go Dons Get Fit Challenge (a month long health promotion program), be able to read and write in English, and be willing to wear an activity monitor for 7 weeks. Students with any medical condition that may affect their ability to participate in physical activity were exempted from the study. Various methods were utilized to recruit participants: flyers were displayed in central locations on campus, class announcements were made, a video explanation of the study was emailed to professors, emails were sent, and tabeling at university events were done. Before the start of the study, potential participants were sent a screening form and were then asked to sign an informed consent form. Throughout the study, questionnaires were sent to students to assess their engagement with various health promotion program resources such as newsletter, emails, and videos. At the end of the study, participants were asked to return the watch and they were compensated for their time by receiving $30.
Results: Participants were 78% female and 22% male (n=50). Of these, 44% identified as Asian, 32% as white, and other races characterized <6% of the sample. The participants were fairly well-distributed in terms of student status as 20% were freshmen, 20% were sophomores, 22% were juniors, 26% were seniors, and 12% classified as graduate students. Of this sample, half of the students (n=25) were Kinesiology majors. Approximately 36% of students claimed to be aware of the federal guidelines for physical activity at baseline. When asked about who they most prefer to be physically active with, 56% responded that they prefer to do so alone, 36% prefer to be active with friends or family, 4% prefer a group or class setting, and the remaining 4% preferred another way that was not listed. Approximately 6% signed up for the competition as a team, while 94% signed up individually. Approximately 22% of participants reported convincing a friend/professor/colleague to join the Go Dons Get Fit Challenge. When looking at participant engagement throughout Go Dons Get Fit, it was found that 28% of participants found the competition between staff/faculty and students to be motivating, 40% found that it had no effect, and 32% did not find it motivating. Moreover, 44% of students reported never checking the leaderboard, 38% checked it every other week, 14% did so a few times a week, and 4% checked it daily. Only 26% of participants reported having read an article or newsletter;14% attended the Exercise is Medicine on Campus display, 4% of participants participated in the Kinesiology sponsored game “Bingo”, and 4% posted about the challenge on their social media. Additionally, 44% of participants reported to have entered their minutes of physical activity during all four weeks, while 44% entered their data 1-3 weeks (out of possible 4), 12% of participants did not report entering their minutes at all. The most common way to enter minutes into the website was one time per week (86%). Furthermore, 56% of the participants reported engaging in two or more resources provided by the University of San Francisco, 24% reported using one of the resources, 8% reported using resources other than the ones listed, and 12% did not report using any resources. Finally, 36% of participants found the weekly themes to be motivating, while 64% were unaware of the themes.
Conclusion: From our findings, it is clear that there was low engagement of the resources provided for students as part of the Go Dons Get Fit Challenge Future studies will analyze whether engagement was associated with major.
MORE RESEARCH AND RESULTS COMING SOON!
