Making the Healthy Choice the Easy Choice on Campus: A Qualitative Study

Abstract:

Objectives: This study identified barriers students face that limit their ability to engage in health behaviors on campus and to determine changes needed to make students’ default decisions healthy. Methods: Focus groups (N = 53) were conducted at a large diverse university. Results: Interpersonal and intrapersonal barriers including lack of time were the most prevalent themes associated with activity challenges. Environmental factors such as food cost were the significant barriers to eating-well. Conclusions: College and university administrators are in the position to create campus environments where the healthy choice is the easy choice. By doing so, they lay the foundation necessary for sound individual behaviors that lead to the physical, mental and academic health of their students.

Key words: college students; diet; activity; campus environment; health policy

Health Behavior & Policy Review. 2015;2(2):110--121

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14485/HBPR.2.2.3

My Opinion:

The article that prepared by Mongiello et al from the New York Institute of Technology, School of Health Professions, provide us the reasons and barriers of major group of college students on why they cannot maintain their physical activities and majorly focus on why they cannot perform healthy diet routine.

We do know that a lot of younger adults now have difference priorities when entering colleges or universities. And, it is college and university role to actually try to combat and find the roots why their students are the main contributors of obesity among citizen in that particular city. Statistic show that younger adults are much likely lose their fitness when they entered campus to further their tertiary studies. With major focus on diet, I am going to point out few major points from the article that I found not to neglect.

According to the qualitative studies of this article, students found that food cost is the significant barriers for participating in healthy diet program. Most of the campus canteen charge their students with expensive price when it is involving healthy food such as fruits and certain vegetables. Instead, junk food is charge cheaper and much tastier. Knowledge of recognizing which of the food are healthy and non are also pointed out lacking which I find it is true since promotion of healthy diet are lesser especially to the faculties that not related to health science. Not only the food is expensive, lacking of selection of healthy food is also a major turn down for students to go for healthy diet. After all, students are younger adults that got bored easily if the choice is lacking, and they cannot afford to buy expensive food. Elimination of junk food and soda is one of suggested way to combat unhealthy food choice within a campus. Even though you cannot implement it in a big scale, starting it in a campus could lead to chain. It won’t be easy to provide subsidies of the healthy food to the campus canteen, but, it is much easier to inhibit the promotion of unhealthy diet among students.

Reference:

Mongiello, L., Freudenberg, N. and Spark, A. (2015). Making the Healthy Choice the Easy Choice on Campus: A Qualitative Study. Health Behavior and Policy Review, 2(2), pp.110-121