BACKGROUND
The Wellness Environment App Study is a longitudinal study focused on promoting health in college students.
OBJECTIVE
The two aims of this study are: 1) to assess physical activity (PA) variation across days of the week and throughout the academic year and 2) to explore the correlates that were associated with PA concurrently and longitudinally.
METHODS
Participants were asked to report their wellness and risk behaviors on a 14-item daily survey through a smartphone app. Each student was provided an Apple Watch to track their real-time PA. Data were collected from 805 college students from Sept 2017 to early May 2018. Data was analyzed in 2020.
RESULTS
Females were significantly more active than male college students. Students were significantly more active during the weekday than weekend. Temporal patterns were also revealed that students were less active during Thanksgiving, Winter, and Spring breaks. Strong concurrent positive correlations were found between higher PA and self-reported happy mood, 8+h sleep, ≥ 1 fruit, and vegetable consumption, ≥ 4 bottles of water intake, and ≤2h screen time (p<.0001). Similar longitudinal associations were found that the previous day wellness behaviors independently predicted the next day higher PA except for mood. Conversely, the higher previous day PA levels were associated with better mood, more fruit and vegetable consumption, less screen time but higher liquor consumption the next day.
CONCLUSIONS
The study provides comprehensive surveillance on a longitudinal PA pattern and its independent association with a variety of wellness and risk behaviors in college students.
Fruit and vegetable consumption and its relation to risk of asthenopia among Chinese college students
