Overall Knowledge Regarding the “Freshman 15” of first year students Marina Lorenzo Abigail Mills

Research statement We predict: If classified freshman are concerned with the ‘Freshman 15’, then their concern of the Freshman 15 reflects their nutritional knowledge. Marina: We predicted that if students were concerned with the freshman 15 than they would be more concerned with their eating habits and that if students were not concerned with the freshman 15 than they would be less concerned with their eating habits.

Background information Mention of the “Freshman 15” date as early as 1985, however, has yet to be proven legitimate 1 The media’s portrayal and exaggeration of actual weight gained during the first year of college, and the average weight gain for classified freshmen is 4.6 pounds 3 Circumstances that affect a change weight gain in the first year: Home cooked meals before attending school Alcohol consumption Physical activity Body perception 8 The “Freshman 15” is geared towards women 6 Marina: The earliest mention of the freshman 15 was in 1985 in the journal Addictive Behaviors, even 32 years it has not been proved to be a legitimate concern. Like you would expect, the media exaggerates the freshman 15. In reality, freshman weight gain should be referred to as the freshman 5 because the average weight gain is only about 4.6lbs.

Methods Created pretest and posttest Informed consent Created three nutrition lessons Pilot test with the Introduction to Dietetics class Proposal written, submitted, & approved by Institutional Review Board (IRB) Gathered participants from two freshman level classes Tested participants Methods Abigail

Participants and Demographics Seven from Intro to Dietetics class Sixteen from Wellness class Marina: we started with a total of 23 participants with 7 from the intro class and 16 from the wellness class. Out of the 23, 17 were female and 6 were male. We had a wide variety of majors with Nutrition and Dietetics having the majority with education closely following.

Data Analysis On the pretest and posttest surveys, participants wrote their ID numbers to remain anonymous After the pretest was given, all 23 participants were emailed nutrition lessons over a three week period MyPlate & portion sizes How to read a nutrition label Added sugar, sodium intake, and fats The answers to the pretest and posttest survey were tallied up separately and converted to percentages We compared answers based on if percentages of the participants answers differed on the pretest and the posttest Graphs were made to give a visual comparison Marina: To keep our participants anonymous, we used their ID number on both the pretest and posttest. After we gave out the pretest we emailed out 3 separate lessons over Myplate and portion sizes, reading a nutrition label, and added sugar, sodium, and fats. After the 3 weeks we gave the posttest and then tallied up the results on a spreadsheet. To compare the results were converted the number to percentages.

Results Are you aware of what the “Freshman 15” is? Yes 100% (pretest and posttest) No 0% (pretest and posttest) Are you concerned with the “Freshman 15”? Yes 43% (pretest) No 47% (pretest) Yes 47% (posttest) No 53% (posttest) Does not apply 0% (pretest and posttest) Abigail A majority of participants answered the basic nutrition questions correctly, this proves our hypothesis that freshman are concerned with the ‘Freshman 15’ and that their concern of the Freshman 15 reflects their nutritional knowledge.

How would you rate your general "health", both physically and mentally, based on your eating habits? Most participants rated their overall health as “average” Abigail

Do you eat more when you are feeling stressed? 74% answered “sometimes” (pretest) 76% answered “sometimes’ (posttest) Marina

Which of the following beverages has the highest amount of sugar? 57% answered “Sweet tea” (pretest) 47% answered “Coca-Cola” (posttest) Marina

Discussion The amount of participants decreased from 23 to 17 Lessons were sent over email Pros: Did not have to set up meeting times Learn on own time Cons: Participants not checking email Not learning info for posttest Changes: Larger sample size Variation of majors across campus Meet in person to teach lessons Have all participants answer pretest and posttest surveys to have comparable results Abigail

Conclusion Both pretest & posttest answers conclude that the majority of first year students are not concerned with the Freshman 15. Both pretest & posttest answers conclude that the majority are knowledgeable in basic nutrition. Abigail Based on the information we gathered, the freshman who are concerned with the freshman 15 have better eating habits because of their concern and students who were not concerned with the freshman 15 cared less about their eating. The majority of our participants were not concerned with the freshman 15 but were still aware about their eating habits. Our research contradicted our the information gathered in the review of literature and proved our prediction wrong.

References Brown C. The information trail of the ‘freshman 15’ a systematic review of a health myth within the research and popular literature. Health Info Libr J. 2008;25:1-12. Reel J, Smith-Jackson T. Freshmen women and the ‘freshman 15’: perspectives on prevalence and causes of college weight gain. J Am Coll Health. 2012;60:14-19. Graham M, Jones A. Freshman 15: valid theory or harmful myth? J Am Coll Health. 2006;50:171-173. Auinger P, Klein J, Mihalopoulos N. The Freshman 15: Is it real? J Am Coll Health. 2008;56:531-533. Leone R, Ludy M, Morgan A. Patterns and composition of weight change in college freshmen. College Stud J. 2015;49: 553-564. Miskovsky M. Lessons learned when evaluating web-based nutrition education in college freshmen. JNP. 2012;8:123-128. Elgar F, Vella-Zarb R. The ‘freshman 5’: a meta-analysis of weight gain in the freshman year of college. J Am Coll Health. 2009; 58:161-166. Bray S, Ginis K, Jung M. Behavior change and the freshman 15: tracking physical activity and dietary patterns in 1st-year university women. J Am Coll Health. 2008;56:523-529. Boyce J, Kuijer R. Perceived stress and freshman weight change: the moderating role of baseline body mass index. Physiol. Behav. 2014;491-496. Hoffman D, Lee S, Policastro P, Quick V. Changes in body weight and fat mass of men and women in the first year of college: a study of the ‘freshman 15’. J Am Coll Health. 2006;55(1):41-45.