UBC Undergraduate Research

UBC Undergraduate Student Awareness of and Adherence to Canada’s 24-Hour Movement Guidelines Andersen, Ava; Hansen, Hanna; Toporkova, Kristina; Malesku, Olivia; Kempel, Shelby

Abstract

The goal of this study was to bring awareness to Canada's 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Adults aged 18-64. A survey was conducted to determine how many undergraduate students at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Vancouver campus were aware of the 24-Hour Movement Guidelines, which pertain to daily physical activity, sleep, and sedentary behaviour. We constructed a mixed-methods survey to assess individuals' awareness of these guidelines and administered it through Qualtrics electronically via a link. The link was sent via email, text message, and posted on social media pages in order to maximize participant recruitment. The survey used convenience and snowball sampling of 87 UBC undergraduate students to collect quantitative and qualitative data. The survey consisted of open-ended and closed-ended questions, as well as a Likert scale of 1-5. Qualitative data were analyzed utilizing descriptive qualitative analysis techniques. Quantitative data were analyzed using Qualtrics and Excel. The findings indicate that the distribution of information about the 24-Hour Movement Guidelines is more easily accessed by kinesiology students than students in other faculties. Students who did not report having a background in kinesiology were much less knowledgeable of the guidelines than those who reported having such backgrounds. In addition, the majority of students view the information in the 24-Hour Movement Guidelines as important and our findings tell us that students would prefer to learn about the 24-Hour Movement Guidelines through social media. Finally, the results also highlighted certain parts of the 24-Hour Movement Guidelines that students were not aware of, such as the importance of resistance training and limiting sedentary time. Our research looks at how undergraduate students at UBC view the importance of the 24-Hour Movement guidelines. This study aimed to find effective ways to spread awareness of the guidelines so students can understand the benefits of reaching the health behaviour recommendations. The goal is for UBC undergraduate students to understand their current activity levels, sedentary time, and sleep as well as their knowledge of the effects of these behaviours on their health. We will discover if UBC undergraduate students are accomplishing these guidelines by asking the following questions: what levels of daily physical activity, sleep, and sedentary time do students engage in ? What barriers do students face that inhibit their ability to achieve the 24-Hour Movement Guidelines through campus life, and what current or potential facilitators would aid their ability to better achieve these guidelines? What platforms will be most effective and accessible for students to learn about the guidelines? We anticipate that these findings can be used to draw attention to parts of the population that require broader methods of communication with respect to the 24-Hour Movement Guidelines. The findings highlight the major differences in awareness based on educational backgrounds, which can be used to build better and more universal methods of distributing information about the 24-Hour Movement Guidelines to different populations. It is important to note that future research should investigate whether or not there may be additional barriers to communication that might contribute to the lack of information on these guidelines. Working towards spreading the information about the guidelines will help increase access and availability of these guidelines to populations that will benefit significantly from them. 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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