Browsing by Subject "sedentary behavior"
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Item Clarifying the Relationships between Rural Parenting Practices and Child Sedentary Behaviors(2013-04-29) Gabriel, Myra GayleChildhood obesity is a growing problem in the United States. Though a great body of research has focused on this area, little is still known about the factors that influence this phenomenon in rural settings. Sedentary behavior and parenting factors are just two factors that influence this trend toward obesity. However, even less is known about how the intersection of parenting influences affects child sedentary behaviors in rural communities. This study examines the relationship between parenting factors and child sedentary behaviors within the context of rurality. This study was completed in two parts. Part one consisted of a comprehensive review of the literature that provided background on the current practices and set the stage for the statistical analysis that followed. Part two included the statistical analysis, which focused on examining the relationships between parents? TV and behavior rules, and child?s sedentary activity behaviors. Pearson correlation and Spearman?s rank were used to assess whether relationships existed between variables. Correlations between weekday and weekend activity and gender were not found to be significant. Also, relationships between rule enforcement and activity were not found to be significant. This study found a glaring gap in the literature that examines how parenting factors influence child sedentary behaviors in rural settings. Also, the statistical analysis revealed that parental rules have no associations with child sedentary activity, despite medium rates of enforcement.Item Dietary, Physical Activity, and Sedentary Behaviors and Their Relationship to Weight Gain in a College Age Population(2012-10-19) Lee, Faegen DillonWeight gain affects all living beings and excessive weight gain can lead to obesity and comorbidities linked to obesity. In order to better understand how the college student population gains weight and increase in BMI, data collected under the Council of Environment and Dietary Activity (CEDA) at Texas A&M University was examined and analyzed in order to understand how physical activity, sedentary behavior, and dietary activity affect weight gain or weight loss. The college population was divided into BMI categories, gender, and where they lived on campus at Texas A&M University. The data shows that physical activity was associated with loss of weight and BMI in females. Sedentary behavior was associated with weight gain in males but also weight loss in females. Meat consumption was associated with weight gain in males. Fish consumption was associated with weight loss in females. Pastries consumption was associated with weight gain in females. Physical activity appeared to have a stronger effect on weight than dietary behavior even though both can interact to affect weight for females. Speed of service and location have a significant effect on where students would eat. In conclusion, physical activity and sedentary activity have an effect on weight and BMI. Diet can also have an effect on weight and BMI. More specifically, sugar snacks affect weight in females and meat affects weight and BMI in males. However, physical activity appears to have a larger on weight and BMI than diet. Location also affects where a student will eat.Item The Use of Stand-capable Workstations for Reducing Sedentary Time in Office Employees(2014-02-20) Kress, Meghan MichelleStand-capable workstations offer office employees an alternative to sitting in their chairs all day, as they allow for work to be conducted while seated or standing. This can lead to substantial reductions in daily seated time, reducing risks associated with high levels of sedentary behavior such as mortality, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. A limited number of studies have been conducted on standing habits at these workstations, with findings showing that reductions in seated time ranges from 0-2 hours. Two types of stand-capable workstations exist: a sit-stand workstation that allows the user to adjust their desk surface between seated and standing height, and a stand-biased workstation that utilizes a desk set at standing height and a raised height chair, in addition to a footrest for increasing comfort while standing. The goal of this research was to determine standing habits of stand-capable workstation users in three different office settings, and to test the hypothesis that users of stand-biased workstations maintain their standing habits over time better than the sit-stand workstation users who may experience a decrease in standing habits after the novelty of their new workstation wears off. Utilizing pre- and post- move surveys with employees at a pharmaceutical company that were moving into an open seating office plan with sit-stand workstations available, low rates of standing behavior were found. On the contrary, a study at Texas A&M University with employees that requested conversion to a stand-biased workstation found that employees averaged standing for approximately half of the time they spent at their desks. A study at Healthways allowed both subjective and objective measurement of employees that used each type of stand-capable workstation, and found that differences in standing habits observed initially between the two workstations declined over a six month follow-up period. This study also showed that those in sit-stand and stand-biased workstations sit approximately 1-2 hours less than their peers working in traditional seated workstations. Studies revealed comfort is a common motivator for standing behavior, and no evidence was found to indicate decreases in standing habits over time in the A&M and Healthways study populations.