None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Over one third of the young adult population in developed countries are university students. The very nature of being a student at a university requires large amounts of sitting, with university students self-reporting greater than 7 hr/day sedentary. These sedentary behaviour levels have increased over the last 10-years and are higher than the general young adult population. With the closure of university campuses due to the COVID-19 pandemic forcing students from face-to-face to online learning and then continuing with hybrid delivery when able, sedentary behaviour has increased in this population. Greater than 7 hr/day of self-reported sedentary time has been associated with an increased risk of dying from any cause. Additionally, the university years have been identified as an important time for future life patterns, including health-related behaviours. Within the University of Canberra Faculty of Health we have the opportunity to promote less sitting in this young adult population and improve health outcomes for not only our students but also the patients of our future health workforce. Few studies have focused on reducing sedentary behaviour in university students and none have used choice architecture interventions. Choice architecture interventions, or ‘nudging’, make subtle changes to the micro-environment (university, home, online), disrupting habitual behaviour and motivating the choice for a healthier option. Applied to the physical, social and learning environments, prompts will be embedded in lectures and tutorials encouraging active breaks every 30 minutes of sitting. Posters and brief educational videos will be co-produced with students to provide information on the relationship between sedentary behaviour, health and academic outcomes, including the use of descriptive social norms. The aim of this project is to reduce students’ total self-reported sedentary behaviour by incorporating 'nudges' to sit less within their academic content (lectures, tutorials) and by providing brief education and prompts to spend less time in sedentary behaviour via the co-designed video and posters.
Interventions
Few studies have focused on reducing sedentary behaviour in university students and none have used choice architecture interventions. Choice architecture interventions, or ‘nudging’, make subtle changes to the micro-environment (university, home, online), disrupting habitual behaviour and motivating the choice for a healthier option. Applied to the physical, social and learning environments, prompts will be embedded in lectures and tutorials encouraging active breaks every 30 minutes of sitting.
Few studies have focused on reducing sedentary behaviour in university students and none have used choice architecture interventions. Choice architecture interventions, or ‘nudging’, make subtle changes to the micro-environment (university, home, online), disrupting habitual behaviour and motivating the choice for a healthier option. Applied to the physical, social and learning environments, prompts will be embedded in lectures and tutorials encouraging active breaks every 30 minutes of sitting. Posters and brief educational videos will be co-produced with students to provide information on the relationship between sedentary behaviour, health and academic outcomes, including the use of descriptive social norms. Specifically, at 30-minute intervals throughout a learning activity delivered by a lecturer or tutor (lecture, tutorial - online or face-to-face), students will be presented with a series of options on how to enjoy a 5-minute learning break. The number of times the learning break will be delivered will be different for each student, depending on how many learning activities they engage with. Choice architecture or nudge theory will be used to alter the presentation of these options for the learning break to bias decision making towards those options involving physical activity. For example, the phrasing and ordering of the options, as well as the colours and images used, will all be designed to subtly influence decision making. The options presented to students within the learning activity will be co-designed with students and staff prior to implementation. The research team will regularly check-in (2-4 weekly) with the lecturers and tutors to monitor the use of the learning breaks. Overall, the aim of the UC-30 repeated ‘nudges’ (learning break options, posters, video) is to disrupt automatic thought processes, helping to develop habits (breaking up sitting) where the behaviour is repeated in daily life within and outside of university study. Sedentary behaviour outcome measures (self-report, accelerometer) will be collected at the end of semester. Students will be asked to complete a sedentary behaviour online survey and one of the questions will ask if they are willing to wear an accelerometer to objectively measure sedentary behaviour. For this additional component, the first 30 participants that express interest in participating will be asked to wear the monitor on their right hip (match-box size on an elastic waist band), while awake, for 7-consecutive days.
Sponsors
A/Prof Nicole Freene
Study design
Allocation
Non-randomised trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Educational / counselling / training
Masking
Open (masking not used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
All University of Canberra students will be eligible for this study. Participants must be 18 years or older, healthy and ambulatory to participate in the study (2023-2024).
Exclusion criteria
Students who are less than 18 years of age, self-report they are not ambulatory (eg: wheelchair bound) and are unwell (eg: spending large amounts of time sitting or lying while awake) will be excluded from participating in the study as the intervention aims to decrease sitting time. Only students and staff from the University of Canberra will be able to participate in this study.
Outcome results
None listed