Rachel Peterson THE CHANGES IN COLLEGE FRESHMEN’S EATING HABITS, PHYSICAL ACTIVITY FREQUENCY, AND SLEEP PATTERNS IN THE TRANSITION FROM HOME TO COLLEGE

 Hypothesis: Has the transition from home to college negatively affected freshman’s eating habits, physical activity, and sleep patterns?  Has their fruit/vegetable/dairy intake decreased?  Has their fast food consumption increased?  Has their amount of sleep decreased?  Do they exercise less frequently? BACKGROUND

 Effects of mindfulness of college students on anthropometric and behavioral measurements (Grinnel, Greene, Melanson, Blissmer, & Lofgren, 2011)  Ranked importance of exercise and healthy eating  Fruit and vegetable screener  Prevalence of the “Freshman 15” (Smith-Jackson & Reel, 2012)  Series of surveys and interviews  47% females reported that college life negatively impacted eating habits PREVIOUS RESEARCH

 Freshman seminar students  18 participants  9 male  9 female  13 Caucasian, 2 African American, 2 Asian, 1 African American/Caucasian  17 aged 18-20, 1 aged 21 or older PARTICIPANTS

SURVEY QUESTION EXAMPLES 1.How many servings of fruit do you eat per day? a.0 b.1 c.2 d.3 2.How many servings of fruit did you eat per day 6 months ago? a.0 b.1 c.2 d.3

1.How many days of the week are you physically active? a.My exercise is walking to class b.A few times a month c.3 days per week d.4 or more days per week 2.How many days of the week were you physically active 6 months ago? a.My exercise is walking to class b.A few times a month c.3 days per week d.4 or more days per week SURVEY QUESTION EXAMPLES

GenderAgeEthnicity Fruit/d ay Fruit/day (past) veggies/d ay veggies/day (past)dairy/day dairy/day (past) fast food/week fast food (past)sleep sleep (past)exerciseexericse (past) 1 male18-21caucasian to 2 5 or less7 to 84 or more 2 male18-21 african american to 46 to 7 4 or more 3 female18-21caucasian to 2 6 to 77 to 84 or more 4 female18-21caucasian to 4 more than 87 to 8 few times/mont h3/week 5 male18-21caucasian to 26 to 75 or less3/week 4 or more 6 female18-21caucasian to 41 to 26 to 7 4 or more3/week 7 male18-21asian to 2 6 to 75 or less few times/mont h3/week 8 female18-21caucasian to 2 7 to 86 to 74 or more 9 male18-21caucasian to 2 7 to 8 3/week 4 or more 10 male18-21caucasian to 23 to 46 to 7 few times/mont h 11 female18-21caucasian to 2 6 to 77 to 83/week 4 or more 12 female18-21caucasian to 23 to 47 to 86 to 73/week few times/month 13 male18-21 african american to 23 to 45 or less6 to 74 or more3/week 14 female18-21caucasian to 207 to 8 more than 84 or more 15 female18-21caucasian to 2 more than 86 to 7 few times/mont h 4 or more 16 male18-21caucasian to 2 more than 8 3/week 4 or more 17 male 21 or olderasian or more 6 to 7 more than 84 or more3/week 18 female18-21other or less6 to 7 few times/mont h

RESULTS Intake/DayMean Fruit Intake1.28 Fruit Intake Past1.89 Vegetable Intake1.50 Vegetable Intake Past1.61 Dairy Intake1.78 Dairy Intake Past2.22  Average Intakes  JMP statistical analysis software

PAST FRUIT INTAKES VS. CURRENT FRUIT INTAKES PastCurrent

PAST VEGETABLE INTAKE VS. CURRENT VEGETABLE INTAKE PastCurrent

PAST DAIRY INTAKE VS. CURRENT DAIRY INTAKE PastCurrent

 Matched pairs t-test  JMP statistical analysis software  Note: P-Value ≥0.1 is considered statistically significant due to decreased sample size RESULTS Food Intake ChangesP-ValueSignificance Fruit0.0036Significant Vegetables0.3036Not Significant Dairy0.0009Significant

 Pearson Chi Square Test  JMP statistical analysis software RESULTS ActivityPearson Chi Square ValueSignificance Fast Food0.6442Not significant Sleep0.9579Not significant Exercise0.6969Not significant

RESULTS

 Hypothesis was not supported  Only fruit and dairy intakes have decreased  Weaknesses of research  Small sample size  Data based on participants perceptions  Lack of specificity on survey questions  Future research  Larger sample size  Compare males to females  Take anthropometric measurements  Longitudinal study DISCUSSION

 Grinnel, S., Greene, G., Melanson, K., Blissmer, B., & Lofgren, I. E. (2011). Anthropometric and Behavioral Measures Related to Mindfulness in College Students. Journal of American College Health,  Smith-Jackson, T., & Reel, J. J. (2012). Freshmen Women and the "Freshman 15": Perspectives on Prevalence and Causes of College Weight Gain. Journal of American College Health, REFERENCES