1502622, 1507418, 1502841, 1506962
How healthy is a university student's lifestyle and how can it be improved Introduction
We are a national organisation with a mission to make the UK healthier by researching why people avoid or are unable to access healthy lifestyle options.
Objective 1: To explore students' dietary behaviours and the contributing factors
The Results to Our Survey
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In response to the question "during the last week, how many times per day have you eaten the following foods? The majority of participants said that they had eaten chocolate at least once a day, 20 people said that they had eaten crisps once a day, only 13 people had eaten sweets once a day while the majority of people had not eaten sweets at all and 25 people said that they had not eaten any cake in the last week.
The main aim of this research project is: To discover how healthy a university students lifestyle is and how it can be improved.
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"A healthy lifestyle is a way of living that lowers the risk of being seriously ill or dying early...It is also about physical, mental and social wellbeing" (WHO, 1999). That is part of the definition from the World Health Organisation but being healthy can mean different things to different people. The respondents to the survey were asked "What is your perception of a healthy lifestyle?". Figure 1 shows their responses. The phrases that reoccurred the most are "exercise" and "a balanced/ healthy diet". Other areas addressed were regarding getting enough sleep, not being stressed and eating fruit and vegetables. It is important every student knows all aspects of a healthy lifestyle in order to encounter one.
Figure 1
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•In response to the question “during the last week, how many times have you eaten the following foods?” 34 of the participants said that they had not had a microwave meal, 15 said that they only had an oven ready meal once, 26 had only had one takeaway meal, 25 had had no salad in the last week, 8 said that they had had fruit and vegetables 7 times in the last week and only 5 had not had a home cooked meal.
Figure 2
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Figure 2 shows the responses to the question. "Do you feel you are as fit and healthy as you could be" it clearly shows that a lot of respondents that completed the survey feel they are not fit and healthy. It is important to stay fit and healthy for multiple reasons towards your future life.
Background Research
Looking at previous reports and surveys was an important part of background research. It enabled us to identify the questions we wanted to include and to investigate why they were so important. Background research can be found throughout the poster and goes into more depth in the introduction to each of our objectives.
Questionnaire Overview
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34% of respondents were 19 at the time of the survey 26% of the respondents were 20 at the time of the survey 26% of the respondents were 21 at the time of the survey 8% of the respondents were 22 at the time of the survey 2% of the respondents were 18 at the time of the survey 2% of respondents were 23 at the time of the survey 2% of the respondents were 24 at the time of the survey.
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Figure 3 shows answers to the question "what is your program of study at university?".
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Figure 5 is a proportional representation of the gender of the respondents. 74% of respondents were female with 26% male .
Figure 8: What types of food do you usually snack on?
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Figure 9: Are you more likely to snack in the following situations?
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When asked to rank the influences of what causes them to buy either a healthy snack or an unhealthy snack from most important to least important, 26.5% of students said environment was the most important, 6% said availability of snacks is the most important, 6% said the pressure of studying was the most important,
Its extremely important to have a good healthy breakfast at the start of the day to set you up for the rest of it. People who don’t skip having breakfast will be more productive and will allow you to have more energy first thing in the morning and will help it be spread throughout the rest of the day. If breakfast is skipped, you are missing vital energy sources first thing in the day. This will cause you to eat more junk food for a quick energy source. "In a related study by the Trust for America's Health predicts that more than half of Americans could be obese by 2030"(Porter, 2016). From this key data it shows that America is starting to worry about its countries obesity levels. There are multiple reasons why people skip breakfast, these being "Lack of Time, Lack of Appetite, Same old Breakfast and Belief that skipping breakfast helps lose weight". So to deal with these shops must advertise breakfast more and the importance that comes with it. In a top 20 cereal poll, that give out the best serving all round. The only top one that most people will know is "General Mills Cheerios". This shows that the top brands for cereals, do not promote healthy eating due to the fact that they are not a healthy branch.
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In response to our survey question "How often do you have breakfast?" 31.4% of people said they always have breakfast 23.5% of people have breakfast 1-2 times a week 19.6% of people had breakfast 3-4 times a week 13.7% of people never have breakfast 11.8%of people have breakfast 5-6 times a week.
63.3% of respondents have tried a new recipe/meal because a supermarket was promoting it/ had it on offer whilst 36.7% of respondents have not.
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64% of respondents believe a healthy lifestyle is more expensive to maintain than an unhealthy one, 26% believe there is no difference and 10% believe a healthy lifestyle is less expensive to maintain than a healthy one.
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92% of respondents would be encouraged to buy healthier foods in supermarkets with the introduction of a student discount whilst only 8% would not. Figure 15 shows the gender difference on this topic. The only gender that may not be encouraged by a student discount were the girls but this may be down to the gender proportion of respondents.
96% of respondents were undergraduate students with 4% of respondents being post graduate.
Of the respondents who were undergraduate students 62.5% were in their second year 25% were in their third year 6.25% were in their first year 4.17% were in their fourth year 2.08% were in their fifth year.
Figure 6
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For our survey question "Do you believe that you parents/partner have an impact with your breakfast routine". 54.9% of people believe their parents don’t have any impact on their breakfast routine 45.1% of people believe they do. 49% of people doing the survey question "Studies show that skipping breakfast is often picked up from your parents, how often do/did your parents have breakfast per week?", said their parents had breakfast everyday. 17.6% of people's parents had breakfast 3-4 times a week 13.7% of parents had 1-2 times a week 11.8% of parents had breakfast 5-6 times a week 7.8% of parents never have breakfast. Figure 12 Figure 11
The results also showed that the foods most popular for students to snack on were high in fat, only a few students chose to have fruit or vegetables as a snack. This was expected as the results from my background research showed that students preferred snacking on high fat content foods rather than the healthier option of fruit and vegetables . It was not surprising to see that the most common reason for a student to snack was due to them experiencing boredom as the study conducted in my background research showed the same result. It may therefore be beneficial for students to get involved in more activities or just to generally find ways to keep themselves busy to avoid boredom and therefore snacking resulting in them living a healthier lifestyle. Objective 2 To discover students breakfast routines From my findings I was extremely surprised with the results I got back in my survey. In my question "How often do you have breakfast" I was surprised at the amount of people that replied with the answer never having breakfast with 7(14%). From the article (Breakfastcereal.org, 2016) it states that 48% of the UK skip breakfast altogether and wait till lunch time to have food. So from seeing this article I hypothesized that our number for never having breakfast would be similar to 48%, but this wasn’t the case and instead reached only 14%.
Objective 4 To discover students physical activity patterns
The research conducted displayed the amount of exercise on average per week. I hypothesized that the average would be approximately 3 hours however this was not the case as the average was 4.2 hours per week. However as most of the respondents were from Chichester university, it was likely that they would be involved in sport as this university is focused strongly on sport, however this was not the case as only 19.6% of the respondents participated in sport. Having compared the results to a similar survey conducted however their survey had over 400 respondents (see references) It was shown that 42.7% of our respondents exercise between 0-2 hours compared to 35% of respondents on theirs. Figure 15
22.8% of our respondents exercise between 3-4 hours whereas 41% of their respondents do. Lastly 32.7% of our respondents exercised for 5+ hours a week whereas 23.5% of their respondents exercised for this length. Therefore although they had more respondents and slightly varied results, they actually both average out quite similarly.
Suggestions for future findings The research that Healthy 'R' Us conducted only returned 50 responses. A larger sample size would have allowed for more accurate results. A larger sample size would have reduced the margin for error which may explain why a few anomalies are present or why are predictions may have been incorrect. Methods/ calculations could be used to determine the confidence level, for example if we were to assume that our sample proportion is 20% and were only looking for 95% confidence level then given the sample size of 50 and a maximum required sample size of 300 then our confidence interval would fall between the ranges of 9.98 and 30.02 which is the estimate of the population proportion likely to lie given our level of confidence. Supposing that we did collect 300 samples then our confidence interval would become significantly smaller.
Objective 4: To discover students physical activity patterns
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The results from the questions in our survey showed that the main reasons for a student's inability to maintain a healthy lifestyle was due to there lack of time and therefore not being able to cook meals from scratch. Another contributing aspect of this is foods being too expensive meaning it would be cheaper for someone to purchase an oven ready meal. Ready meals solve both of these issues as they take little time are usually relatively cheap.
The survey results back up the research that customers still prefer to shop instore at 92% of the respondents normally do. Respondents answers also show that not only would they like to be able to use a student discount in a supermarket, but they would be encourage to purchase healthier food. This is a very important result as supermarkets could increase their report with students whilst helping them improve their health.
Figure 14
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Objective 1 To explore student's dietary behaviors and the contributing factors
Objective 3 How can supermarkets promote a healthy lifestyle for students The results of the survey indicate that more students have purchased food due to seeing a promotion than those who haven't. This indicates that promotions are important to a consumers buying behaviour and shows the research suggesting more promotions promote unhealthy food (Smithers, 2016) could be helping to encourage students to live a less healthy lifestyle. Tesco, M&S ad Sainsbury’s have the customers who believe healthy eating is the most expensive yet Sainsbury's were voted as proving the healthiest diet.
Figure 14 shows the opinions of the respondents on which supermarket promotes the healthiest diet.
In response to the question was asked about "how many hours a week did the respondent exercise?" 13.3% of the respondents only exercise 0 to 1 hour a week. Figure 16 19.6% exercised up to 1 hour a week. 9.8% of the respondents exercised up to 2 hours a week. 11.4% exercised up to 3 hours a week. 11.4% also exercise up to 4 hours per week. 5.7% of respondents exercise 5 hours a week. 9.8% of respondents exercise up to 6 hours a week. 17.2% exercise more than 7 hours per week. Figure 16 bar chart shows a visual representation of the results above. 4.2 hours of exercise is the average. 17.2 respondents exercise more than 7 hours a week which could be expanded upon as they vary e.g 8, 10, 10, 10, 15, 15, 15, 15. Figure 17
If we were to conduct this survey again then we would also need to decrease the bias between the male and female respondents as only 26% of the respondents were male. This bias may have skewed the results as their lifestyles can vary substantially. Therefore not only would we need to increase the amount of respondents but also ensure that gender is equally weighted. We also would have rephrased some of our questions in order to gain deeper understanding and widen our answers. We would also like to expand where our research was collected from, many of our respondents attend the University of Chichester. To achieve more accurate nationwide results we would like respondents from every county in the United Kingdom. Next time we would like to look deeper into: • Why people buy the food they do and what food satisfies them • Ready Meals and the health impacts • What other meals students eat irregularly • The impacts students feel from skipping meals • The prices students are willing to pay for certain foods • If students believe supermarket promotions encourage them to eat unhealthily • The reasons students don’t exercise • What kind of exercise is most popular with students • Mental health
References
The most popular choice of breakfast is cereal coming in at 36.7% other at 20.4% with most results coming back as cereal bars 18.4% replied with the answer toast 14.3% skipped breakfast altogether 10.2% of people eating meat and eggs for breakfast.
Figure 4 shows where the respondents live. •
Figure 13 shows a comparison between where the respondents commonly shop and their opinion on whether a healthy lifestyle is more expensive, no different or less expensive to maintain than an unhealthy one. In response to "Where do you commonly shop?" 32% of respondents shop in Tesco 20.3% of respondents shop in Sainsbury's 10.8% of respondents shop in Lidl 7.8% of respondents shop in Co-op 7% of respondents shop in Aldi 6.3% of respondents shop in Morrison's 4.7 % of respondents shop in M&S 4.7 % of respondents shop in Asda 2.3% of respondents shop in Waitrose 0.8% or respondents shop at Ocado 3.1% of respondents shop at other, they stated that the other are; Albert Hijn, HEB (United States grocer), Iceland/ Poundland and local fruit and veg shops.
Summary of findings
From my findings for the question "How often do you parents have breakfast per week" I was surprised at how low the percentage was for parents skipping breakfast everyday at only (8%). From the article (Breakfastcereal.org, 2016) it shows that nearly half of the UK skip breakfast. So I was surprised to see that from the survey only 8% of parents have breakfast everyday. I personally thought that from this article I would see at least 30% for the answer never having breakfast per week.
92% of respondents usually shop in-store while only 8% of respondents usually shop online.
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In response to "On day's of exams/important meetings, how often do you skip breakfast?" We found that 58.8% of people do not skip breakfast 13.7% of people skip breakfast on important days 27.5% of people will sometimes skip breakfast on important days.
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In response to "How much would you predict you spend on healthy food per week?" 2% selected £0 8% selected £0.01 - £5 18% selected £5.01 - £10 24% selected £10.01 - £15 20% selected £15.01 - £20 12% selected £20.01 - £25 14% selected £25.01 - £30 2% selected other and specified that spend £70 per week.
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Our Responses To Our Survey
50 students responded to the survey.
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Objective 2: To discover students breakfast routines
Our background research gave us an insight as to what the dietary and exercise habits of a university student are generally like. The study conducted by Kathryn Silliman (et al) showed that breakfast was the most common meal to be missed by students and that they tend to snack at least once or twice per day. Another interesting fact that we discovered from our background research was that the majority of students eat fruit and vegetables less than once per day. According to the participants in this study, their main reason for having a poor diet was simply that they lacked time. It was found that the male students generally exercise more than the female students and more intensely. Men were also more confident with their body image than women. Students gave the same reason for not exercising that they did for not maintaining a healthy diet; lack of time. It is assumed that the poor eating habits of students constant snacking, lack of exercise and the regular consumption of high fat content foods.
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Students could encourage purchasing healthier foods through student discounts; 8 in 10 students would be more likely to shop somewhere if they received discount(NatWest, 2016). In 2013 the Co-op started offering a 10% discount with NUS cards. CJ Antel-Smith, head of commercial grocery at the Co-op said "we’re giving a big incentive for students to make good, healthy choices about the food they eat". NUS vice president commented that "when we asked our students what they most wanted from NUS extra, a supermarket deal was the overwhelming answer" (Co-op, 2013).
The bar chart in figure 9 illustrates that the most common reason for students snacking is caused by boredom suggesting that if students had more activities or things to do, they may be able to maintain a healthier lifestyles a little more easily. 29.5% of students said that studying was the main reason causing them to snack. Feeling emotional was the least popular reason for snacking with only 19.3% choosing it. •
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How students shop may affect the products they buy. A survey of 5,444 consumers showed that 71% of respondents would rather purchase a product instore than online (Wallace, 2016). Another survey found that less than 1% of students purchase their groceries online (Devine et al, 2006). This research indicated that supermarkets need to put most of their efforts into promoting healthy lifestyles instore.
The bar chart in figure 8 is demonstrating the types of foods that students tend to snack on; the most popular snack was crisps with 26.6% of participants choosing it. The next most popular snack was chocolate with followed closely by fruit at 18.5%. This result shows that some students are choosing to snack on healthy foods however the majority of participants would rather snack on junk food than a healthier alternative such as fruit and vegetables.
Healthy Lifestyle Perceptions
Supermarkets have some responsibility towards promoting a healthy lifestyle. Research by consumer group "Which?" found that 53% of UK supermarket promotions are for unhealthy food (Smithers, 2016). The problem is not limited to the UK, four major Dutch supermarkets were analysed over eight weeks and it was discovered that "70% of promotions were categorised as unhealthy" (Revensbergen et al, 2015). Students have noticed this; a comment by a university student within UK research on the promotion of healthy eating: "you can find offers on snacks everyday, but not on fresh fruits" (Wong, 2006).
Figure 7: Students' Reasons For Not Cooking
The bar chart in figure 7 illustrates that the majority of students' reason for not cooking was that they did not have the time to do so and therefore resort to eating oven and microwave meals instead which is obviously an unhealthier alternative. The next most popular reason for not cooking was that the participants simply could not cook or found that too it was too expensive for them to cook. 4.5% of students said that they did not know where to shop to purchase the ingredients to cook and 19.4% of students had other reasons for why they did not cook. These reasons included people finding it takes a lot of effort to cook.
"Health is like money, we never have a true idea of its value until we lose it” (Billings, 1865). Once one learns to look after their mind and body they can continue to do so for the rest of their lives. This is why it is so important for students to learn to live a healthy lifestyle when they are still young. Whilst studying at university many students forget about their own personal care and this can continue into later life.
The objectives of this research project are: To explore students' dietary behaviours and the contributing factors To discover students breakfast routines How can supermarkets promote a healthy lifestyle for students? To discover students physical activity patterns.
Students need to be buying healthy food to have a healthy diet. In 2014 The British Heart Foundation polled 2,444 adults and found that "39% sacrificed health benefits for cost when doing their grocery shopping" (BBC, 2014). Students generally live on a tight budget so purchasing healthy food is usually put after paying rent and travel costs. NatWest conducted a survey in 2016 and found the average weekly spend on groceries by students is £19.78. 63% of students find that living on a student budget affects their diet (Bushi, 2015).
Previous studies have shown that the majority of students snack on foods when they are bored with the next most occurring reason being studying. The most common foods that students were snacking on were crisps, crackers or nuts which are obviously foods that are high in fat and therefore contributing to an unhealthy lifestyle. According to previous studies, most students eat vegetables 2-6 times per week. Considering the recommended consumption of vegetables is t have 5 a day, this is also a huge contributor to an unhealthy lifestyles. Most students are not consuming enough fruit of vegetables to be leading a healthy lifestyle and are also consuming far too many fatty, unhealthy foods. This is concerning as eating fruit and vegetables has been proven to protect cancers and cardiovascular disease. (Silliman, K et al. 2004).
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There are two factors that are important when it comes to having a healthy lifestyle; physical and mental health. In terms of physical health, it is important for a person to be consuming the correct foods on a daily basis. These foods include the recommended 5 fruit and vegetables a day and avoiding foods with high percentages of artificial sugars and high fat content. It has been found that diet related illnesses such as strokes, cancer and cardiovascular disease can be prevented by eating a balanced diet and exercising regularly. Most university students will find it difficult to stay within the guidelines of exercising and nutrition due to their low finances and therefore inability to afford healthy foods and lack of time for exercising.
Objective 3: How can supermarkets promote a healthy lifestyle for students?
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Figure 17 shows the minimum value which is 0 and the maximum value which is 15 (hours of exercise per week). The first interquartile range is after 12.75 respondents which in the case is 1 hour of exercise. The median value is 3. The third interquartile range is 6.
Billings, J. (1865) ‘Health’ [Online]. Available at: https://www.thornburg.com/pdf/TH3143_Health_retail.pdf (Accessed: 01 December 2016).
BBC. (2014) ‘A 'third of UK adults struggle' to afford healthy food’ [Online]. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-27110613 (Accessed: 06 December 2016). Bushi, R. (2015) ‘Student Money Survey 2015’, Save the Student [Online]. Available at: http://www.savethestudent.org/money/student-money-survey2015.html (Accessed: 03 December 2016). Co-op (2013) ‘Ground-breaking supermarket discount for students’, 13 September [Online]. Available at: http://www.coop.co.uk/corporate/press/press-
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7.6% of respondents exercise at the highest end of the range of up to 15 hours per week. According to many sources such as the NHS and a Harvard study say that everyone should exercise up to at least 150 minutes/ 2 and a half hours weekly. This means that 42.7% of the respondents asked are not getting as much weekly exercise that they are required to do.
releases/headline-news/Ground-breaking-supermarket-discount-for-students/ (Accessed: 04 December 2016). Devine, P., Grey, A., Lloyd, K., Northern Island Social., ARK. (2006) ‘University Student Food Attitudes and Behaviour Survey’ [Online]. Available at: http://www.ark.ac.uk/services/nistudentsurvey2005.pdf (Accessed: 02 December 2016).
Doughty, E. (2014) ‘A Student Discount Worth Shouting About’, Telegraph [Online]. Available
Out of the 51 responses, a combined total of 219 hours of exercise is conducted weekly, This means that the average weekly exercise conducted is 4.2 hours. 3 hours of exercise weekly is the median figure and 1 hour of exercise is the modal figure.
at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/student-life/10714113/A-student-discount-worth-shouting-about.html (Accessed: 03 December 2016). Genyouth foundation. (2016) ‘The Wellness Impact: Enhancing Academic Success through Healthy School Environments’ [online]. Available
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In regards to the question which identifies if the respondents "participate in a sports team?" 19.6% of respondents answered yes to being involved in a sports team and 80.4% answered no.
at: http://www.azed.gov/health-nutrition/files/2016/01/the_wellness_impact_report.pdf (Accessed 08 December 2016).
When asked whether they perceive themselves as more or less physically active than someone their age. 19.6% of respondents consider themselves to be more active than someone their age. 47.1% consider themselves to be less active. 33.3% consider themselves to be as active as someone their age.
at: https://www.nmu.edu/wellness/sites/DrupalWellness/files/UserFiles/10.3_Importance_of_Breakfast.pdf (Accessed 08 December 2016).
These figures correlate with the figures from the question about how many hours a week they exercise. As shown above 42.7% aren't getting the average amount of exercise where as 47.1% consider themselves to be less active. This is a difference of 4.4%
http://personal.natwest.com/content/dam/natwest_com/Life%20Moments/NatWest%20Student%20Living%20Index%202016.pdf (Accessed: 02
Hennekens, H. (2016) ‘Wednesday Wellness Tip’ [online] Available
Marley, S. (2016) ‘The Importance and Effect of Sample Size’, Select statistical services [Online]. Available at: https://select-
statistics.co.uk/blog/importance-effect-sample-size/ (accessed: 06 December 2016). NatWest (2016) ‘Student Living Index 2016’ [Online]. Available at:
December 2016). Porter, S. (2016) ‘Healthy Breakfast’, BDA [Online]. Available at: https://www.bda.uk.com/foodfacts/breakfast.pdf (Accessed 08 December 2016).
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Figure 6 represents the ethnicity of our respondents.
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Revensbergen, E., Kroeze, W., Steenhuis, H., Waterlander, W. (2015) ‘Healthy or Unhealthy on Sale? A cross-sectional study on the proportion of healthy and unhealthy foods promoted through flyer advertising by supermarkets in the Netherlands’, NCBI [Online]. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25943988 (Accessed: 03 December 2016).
Rodas-Fortier, K., Neyman, M., Silliman, K et al (2004) A Survey of Dietary and Exercise Habits and Perceived Barriers to Following a Healthy Lifestyles in a College Population, Californian Journal of Health Promotion, Volume 2. Smithers, R. (2016) ‘Supermarket price promotions targeting less healthy food, survey finds’, The Guardian [Online]. Available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/aug/04/supermarket-price-promotions-targeting-less-healthy-food-survey-finds (Accessed: 03 December 2016). Wallace, S. (2016) ‘The State of Retail 2016’, Times Trade [Online}. Available at: http://www.timetrade.com/system/files/surveys/_TimeTrade_State_of_Retail_2016.pdf (Accessed: 02 December 2016). Wong, V. (2006) ‘Examine the relationship between the Promotion of Healthy Eating and the Food that is consumed’, The International Journal of Urban Labour and Leisure [Online]. Available at: http://www.ijull.co.uk/vol7/2/wong.pdf (Accessed: 03 December).