Abstract

Purpose: The Brigham Young University General Education Wellness Program has three options available to students to fulfill the programs requirement. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of these three wellness options. Specifically we wanted to know; does the university wellness requirement affect student nutrition and physical activity behaviors and do the various options available differ in their abilities to impact student nutrition and physical activity behaviors?

Methods: A three-group pretest/posttest design was used and a survey was administered, at both the beginning and end of the semester, to all students enrolled in HEPE 129, live and online, and all 100 level Physical Education activity classes. The final study design included 303 student responses from HEPE live, 551 responses from HEPE online and 270 responses from the activity classes. Data analysis of between and within group differences was conducted for each nutrition and physical activity behavior.

Results: HEPE online students had small but significant improvements in estimated VO2 max, and in the percentage of students who ate bran or whole grain cereal once/day or more. The activity classes increased significantly for almost all of the physical activity behaviors including estimated VO2 max, days/week of moderate activity, and the percent of students getting 30 minutes/day of vigorous activity, but only one of the nutrition behaviors, whole wheat food intake. HEPE live students increased for every variable, some more significantly than others.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that of the three wellness options offered at Brigham Young University, the HEPE live class had the largest impact on improving nutrition and physical activity behaviors across a one semester time period, the activity classes had the next largest impact, and HEPE online had the least impact.

Degree

College and Department

Life Sciences; Exercise Sciences

Rights

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