Promoting physical activity among university students: a pilot study

Aim: Physical activity (PA) has been proved to be a key factor in the prevention of non-communicable diseases. Nonetheless, one third of the world population is estimated to don't reach the recommended levels of PA. Promotion of PA among university students seems to be important to establish lifelong healthy lifestyle. Yet, research in the field is limited in quantity, quality and generalizability. The aim of this study was to test the efficacy of two PA promotion programs on a sample of not regularly active university students. Methods: 33 students from the University of Padova participated in a 12-week randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of two programs to promote PA. Participants were randomised into 3 groups: a group attended individual counselling sessions (ICG), a group used commercial accelerometers (Technogym Mywellness Key) (AG) and a control group (CG). Individual counselling was based on the Transtheoretical model of behaviour change and on the Social-cognitive theory, and was delivered via online video calls. AG group was asked to use the accelerometer along with the dedicated websites. Informative e-mails about PA were sent both to ICG and to AG. CG didn't receive any intervention. Measures of energy expenditure and state of change of participants were taken before the randomization (t0), at the end of the intervention (t1) and after a 3-month follow-up (t2). Repeated measures analysis of variance and dependent samples t-tests were used to assess the effects of the intervention on PA levels. Friedman test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test were used to analyse variation in stages of change. Results: Students in ICG increased energy expenditure between t0 and t1, and maintained this improvement to t2. Progression through states of changes was observed in ICG at t1, followed by some relapses at t2. No significant differences were found in AG and in CG. Conclusions: Results suggest that the individual counselling program was effective to promote PA among university students compared to a program based on accelerometers and to a no-intervention condition