Life Sciences Commons^™

Exercise, Learning And Emotional Health: Interdisciplinary Approaches To Translational Action, Tessa L. Koschel

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Exercise positively effects physical, psychological and neurological wellbeing. Though the population at large is becoming increasingly aware of the multi-faceted benefits of exercise, the majority of people fail to meet daily exercise recommendations. Largely, demands of everyday life such as work, school and family take priority over fitness. The issue therefore becomes a matter of time. In a world of media multi-tasking and immediate gratification, the challenge to health professionals becomes incorporation and manipulation of these consistencies to improve exercise uptake and adherence. Focus must shift from the idea of making additional time for exercise, to adding exercise to time …

A Comprehensive Validation Of Activity Trackers For Estimating Physical Activity And Sedentary Behavior In Free-Living Settings, Albert R. Mendoza

Doctoral Dissertations

The aim of study one of this dissertation was to compare consumer activity trackers (ATs) with the research-grade ActiGraph™ GT3X-BT accelerometer (AG) in estimating energy expenditure (EE) and steps during orbital shaking at different frequencies. To address this aim, we utilized an electronic orbital shaking protocol (twenty-four, 3-minute trials; 2-hour trials). For all comparisons, the AG served as the reference measure. In the 3-min protocol, we showed that on average, the NL-1000 pedometer (NL) produced the lowest error (-9 steps/3-min) at 0.9 Hz (corresponding to moderate intensity). The magnitude of the error for the NL was 14 steps/3-min at a …

A Simulated Walk In Nature: Testing Predictions From The Attention Restoration Theory, Corey Crossan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Attention Restoration Theory (ART) predicts that top-down processing during everyday activities can cause attentional fatigue and that bottom-up processing that occurs when people experience nature will be restorative (Kaplan, 1995). The present study examined this prediction by exposing participants to three different conditions using a repeated measures design: a control condition during which participants walked on a typical treadmill, a nature/restorative condition during which participants walked on the same treadmill, experiencing a simulated nature walk, and a perturbation condition that included the same simulated nature scene but also required top-down processing during the walk. The findings supported ART predictions. As …

Physical Activity And Associated Energy Intake In Undergraduate College Students, Erin Marie Fejes

Theses and Dissertations

Background: College students often develop unhealthy eating habits. Poor eating habits can lead to chronic disease.

Methods: Energy intake and physical activity data from 35 undergraduate students enrolled in a 100-level kinesiology class were recorded and analyzed. Energy intake data was self-reported, while physical activity data was recorded via an activity tracker.

Results: Data points were analyzed twice: each day separately and as averages for each participant. When analyzed as averages, grams of total fat and grams of carbohydrate were the most significantly correlated with minutes of moderate to vigorous+ physical activity (both p<0.01). When analyzed by day, grams of protein, total fat, saturated fat, carbohydrate, sugar, and fiber were all found to be significantly correlated with minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity to the p≤0.01 level.

Conclusion: An increase in physical activity …

Students’ Time In Their Heart Rate Zone With And Without Polar Display, Amy Marzano

Theses and Dissertations

The lack of physical activity (PA) and rise in sedentary behavior has become an increasing problem in the United States (Owen, Sparling, Healy, Dunstan & Matthews, 2010). The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (USDHHS) recommends sixty minutes of daily PA for young people ages 6-17 (CDC, 2013). Despite this recommendation, the 2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data reported that only 24% of youth 12-15 years of age were obtaining sixty minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) every day (Fakhouri, et al., 2014). Physical education (PE) is one of the few environments where all children are …

Playground And Garden Physical Activity Levels In Young Children, Ashlyn Nicole Schwartz

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine the differences in time spent in physical activity (PA), as assessed by the amount of time spent in PA, vector magnitude (counts/15 sec.), MET values, and energy expenditure (kcal/min), between two outdoor environments (natural playground and garden) in preschool children. Participants were twenty-five children (4.4±0.7 years) enrolled in a university laboratory preschool. PA was assessed using an ActiGraph GT3X+ accelerometer that was worn on the right hip. Each child completed four randomly ordered conditions (30 min each), which included two bouts of unstructured PA on the natural playground and two bouts of …

Promoting Benefits Of Physical Activity Through Persuasive Communication, Priynka Patil

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Inactivity early in life can lead to inactively later in life, which can result in negative outcomes. The primary purpose was to determine if gain- or loss-framed messages about physical activity would change the attitudes, intentions, and behaviours of students in the contemplation or preparation stage of the Transtheoretical model. The secondary purpose was to determine if framing the message in terms of the physical health benefits, appearance/social benefits, or mental health benefits (benefit condition) would change attitude, intention and behaviour. Undergraduate female students (N=60) between the ages of 18 and 36 were recruited from the university. The results found …

Self-Reported Adherence To Physical Activity For Cancer Survivors: An Update From The 2015 Nhis Database, Andrew Jackson Shearer

Theses and Dissertations--Kinesiology and Health Promotion

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in America. It’s been suggested that regular physical activity (PA) can improve health outcomes in cancer survivors. An estimate from BRFSS data (2009) suggested that 47% of all cancer survivors met recommended guidelines and that this estimate was not different from the population at large (48%). Several factors were examined from these BRFSS data to determine whether subgroups of survivors existed who might benefit from interventions aimed at improving their PA status. The purpose of this investigation was to obtain more recent estimates of adherence to established PA guidelines for cancer survivors. …

Relationship Of Stress, Sleep, Physical Activity, And Food Insecurity On Eating Behaviors And Obesity, Amy Lee Richards

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is an urgent need to find effective interventions to prevent and reduce obesity as it is associated with chronic disease and decreased quality of life. Gaining a better understanding of how modifiable variables such as stress, sleep, physical activity, and food insecurity are related to eating behaviors associated with obesity is essential to guide the direction of future interventions and research. Interventions that hold promise need to be tested to determine if they have merit or not. This dissertation presents three papers. Two papers are cross-sectional studies evaluating associations between eating behaviors, obesity, and modifiable variables (stress, sleep, physical …