UBC Undergraduate Research

Commuter & Resident Student Non-Participants for Move UBC Parag, Akira; Parag, Nishtha; Parag, Harika; Okano, Hanae

Abstract

The Move UBC initiative to help students, staff, and faculty at the University of British Columbia (UBC) to become more active, has recently completed its third campaign. During the month of February, Move UBC hosts a variety of free and low-cost events on the UBC Vancouver and Okanagan campuses. In addition to increasing physical activity levels on campus, Move UBC aims to raise awareness about the health risks of a sedentary lifestyle, which include physical, mental, and emotional deficits (Allen, Walter, & Swann, 2019; Patterson et al., 2018; Zhai, Zhang, & Zhang, 2014). Considering the importance of the Move UBC initiative, it is necessary to examine the factors influencing lack of participation in Move UBC events. This project, Commuter & Resident Student Non-Participants for Move UBC, aimed to determine the interests and barriers faced by non-participant undergraduate commuter and resident students on the UBC Vancouver campus. Directly following the conclusion of Move UBC, commuter and resident students were surveyed to determine their preferred mode of advertising, their interests in terms of events, as well as their reasons for not participating in Move UBC. Results indicated that commuters were drawn to Move UBC events to be more active whereas residents were interested to be more social and to have fun. Responses further showed that students preferred social media as a means of receiving information about Move UBC. Students demonstrated interest in the campaign and suggested a need for advanced and detailed promotion of events, as well as more varied events. Overall, students were favourable to the Move UBC initiative and willing to provide recommendations for how to improve participation. Based on the results of this project, it is recommended that Move UBC begin advertising further in advance, providing more details on events and timings. Furthermore, Move UBC should increase its use of social media as a means of advertising and engaging students. Finally, students indicated a need for more varied events, suggesting that Move UBC diversify its event listings. Further evidence-based suggestions are provided within the report. These recommendations are provided in the hopes of increasing participation in the Move UBC campaign, an initiative that has significant positive health impacts on the university population. Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.”

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