The campus healthy lifestyles, outcomes and experiences study: protocol for an observational assessment of college students’ health

Abstract

As emerging adults transition from home to university campus living, they develop distinct health behaviors, including those surrounding food choice, exercise, and stress management. Concurrently, many college students experience body composition changes and weight gain at rates higher than those observed in the general population. Given that weight gain in college typically tracks into later life, a better understanding of the behavioral and physiological changes that occur during the first year of college is imperative. This protocol describes an observational study designed to assess behavioral and physiological changes among residential first-year college students with a university meal plan over one academic year (2023/2024). The protocol was developed through an iterative process incorporating research staff feedback and a pilot group sample from the previous academic year (2022/2023). Altogether, data were collected from 91 first-year college students at one university in the southeastern United States. Questionnaires were administered at three points in time, covering various individual health behavior topics (e.g., exercise, sleep, and substance use), nutrition literacy, diet quality, and campus food environment perceptions. Trained research assistants collected physical health measurements twice (approximately 6 months apart) at the university Health Risk Assessment Lab. These measurements included height, weight, blood pressure, a dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scan, and a blood sample to evaluate markers of chronic disease risk (e.g., A1C and cholesterol). Participants also consented to share data on meal purchases and recreational center visits with their student identification cards. Several research questions will be explored with this data, including the association between health history and campus lifestyle behaviors and the physiological changes that occurred during the first year on campus.