Objectively Assessing the Effect of a Messenger-based Intervention to Reduce Sedentary Behavior in University Students: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Aim: Sedentary behavior poses a serious health risk. Students in particular are highly affected by prolonged, uninterrupted periods of sitting due to routines in everyday university life, such as attending lectures, self-study periods in the library, etc. Whereas university students are mostly young and therefore appear to be healthy, evidence-based consequences of prolonged sitting may come to pass in prospective times. Therefore, primary prevention must be initiated to shield university students from the occurrence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Consequently, the study aims to evaluate a messenger-based intervention designed to reduce sedentary time among university students. Subjects and Methods: The effectiveness of the intervention was assessed in a randomized controlled trial with a convenience sample of thirty-four German university students. ActivPal devices (Pal Technologies Ltd., Glasgow) were applied to measure sedentary behavior objectively before and after a 3-week intervention of messages to interrupt sedentary time. An additional evaluation of the messages was carried out. Results: Sedentary behavior decreased by about one hour in the intervention group. Explorative analysis shows a statistically significant, negative correlation between sedentary time at baseline and the change of sedentary behavior over time in the intervention group (r = −.81) indicating effectiveness of the intervention for the participants with the highest sedentary times at baseline. Additionally, the messages were considered appropriate by the participants. Conclusion: A reduction of sedentary time of one hour per day in the intervention group is practically significant. The current investigation had similar findings with prior studies where promising results for the reduction of sedentary behavior were observed through mobile-based interventions. The detected effects of the intervention in this pilot study demonstrate an opportunity for further research in this field.