Fit into College II: Physical Activity and Nutrition Behavior Effectiveness and Programming Recommendations Article (Web of Science)

abstract

  • Purpose To determine whether residency (living on campus versus off campus) was related to the effects of Fit into College on students' health behaviors, and to understand interns' perceptions of their roles in mentoring their trainees. Design Pre-experimental, one-group, pretest-posttest design and a posttest focus group interview. Setting University-offered health and internship courses. Subjects Twenty-four students (trainees) participated in the intervention, nine of whom lived on campus. Five student-interns served as their mentors. Intervention Fit into College was a 14-week intervention in which trainees teamed up with an intern to improve and/or maintain healthy nutrition and physical activity behaviors. Measures Trainees' nutrition and physical activity behaviors and perceptions were quantitatively assessed through surveys at preintervention and postintervention. Interns' mentoring perceptions were qualitatively assessed through a focus group interview after the intervention. Analysis Two-factor repeated measure ANOVAs and qualitative theme identification. Results Regardless of their residency location, the trainees' perceptions of the health benefits of eating fruits and vegetables improved during the intervention. However, for trainees living on campus, the intervention was not effective in increasing the number of fruits and vegetables consumed or the planning for food preparation. The interns perceived that they did not have adequate access to healthy foods, the knowledge or skills to prepare healthy foods, or the competency to teach food preparation strategies to their trainees. For trainees living on campus, the intervention was more effective in decreasing perceived exercise barriers than trainees living off campus. Conclusion Future iterations of Fit into College may focus on 1) improving college students' planning and preparation of healthy foods, 2) segmenting trainees into more homogeneous groups for the interns to tailor their areas of expertise (campus vs. off-campus and/or freshman vs. upperclass students), and 3) collaborating with university-partners to improve environmental conditions to promote physical activity and healthy nutrition.

authors

  • King, Kristi McClary
  • Ling, Jiying
  • Ridner, Lee
  • Jacks, Dean
  • Newton, Karen S.

publication date

  • 2013

webpage

published in

number of pages

  • 12

start page

  • 29

end page

  • 41

volume

  • 37

issue

  • 1