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The Ideal Intervention Method for Colleges Essays

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A recent study conducted by the American College Health Association characterized 38.7% males and 26.1% females in college as overweight or obese. (Reed et. al 298) As much alarming a situation it is, it could also raise questions of validity whether college is the actual reason of this situation. Results from a prospective longitudinal study acknowledge this doubt, and suggest that men and women in their first year of college gain weight more rapidly than the average American at the same age. (Holm-Denoma et al. S3) The infamous “Freshman 15” is an implication of the same, where inappropriate diet results in freshmen gaining fifteen pounds of weight. These sources indicate that there seems to be a detrimental connection between college …show more content…

The students were required to fill a food log, which determined their progress over the session. The results of this experiment revealed a growth in the nutritional knowledge of the participants and an increase in their fruit, vegetable, skimmed milk and whole grain consumption. Yet, this experiment possessed limitations. The food logs might be altered due to social desirability bias. Wikipedia defines social desirability bias as “The tendency of respondents to answer questions in a manner that will be viewed favorably by others. It can take the form of over-reporting "good behavior" or under-reporting "bad," or undesirable behavior”. Also, due to the diversity of activities performed in each class, which ones actually improved their results is questionable.

This limitation was overcome by another similar intervention by Schnoll R and Zimmerman BJ, but this time, using a dismantled approach towards the teaching the importance of daily fiber intake. Classes were divided into 1 of 4 four experimental groups: goal setting only, self-monitoring only, goal setting and self-monitoring combined or no self-regulation components. Results indicated that the participants who were taught both self-monitoring and goal setting were associated with the greatest increase as compared to those who were taught one or fewer self-regulation skills.
Hekler et al used a slightly different (in-person intervention), and according to me, a more realistic approach towards the

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