The lifestyles and health habits of students from a Quebec university


Chapitre de livre

Contributeurs:

État de publication: publié

Titre du livre: Education Applications & Developments V

Éditeur: InScience Press

Lieu: Lisboa, Portugal

Volume:

Intervalle de pages: 39-48

ISBN: 978-989-54815-0-7

URL: http://insciencepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Full_Book_Contents_Education-Applications-and-Developments-V.pdf

Résumé: Despite the physical and psychological benefits associated with healthy lifestyle habits, approximately 50% of Canadians fail to adopt an active lifestyle and a healthy diet (Statistics Canada, 2014). University students are no exception to this tendency, even though the literature acknowledges the benefits of healthy lifestyles for academic success (La Cascia et al., 2019). In this context, the objectives of this study were to: 1) examine the lifestyles and health habits of a sample of Quebec university students and 2) explore this sample’s needs with respect to strategies that can be used to promote healthy habits on campus. A cross-sectional design, a web-based survey (n = 1,980 students), and three focus groups (n = 22 students, ~7/group) were used to reach these objectives. The results showed that: 1) 55.2% of students were considered sedentary and 81.2% did not meet the Canadian recommendations regarding vegetable and fruit consumption and 2) lack of time and excessive workload were the main barriers to physical activity practice and maintaining a healthy diet. Future research should focus on maintaining a balance between offline (e.g., workshops) and online (e.g., computer tailoring) interventions to promote physical activity and healthy diet maintenance throughout the academic year.

Théorie de l'activité: