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Using Fitbit data to examine factors that affect daily activity levels of college students

To date, the effect of both fixed and time-varying individual, social, psychological, environmental, and behavioral characteristics on temporal growth trends in physical activity (PA) among younger individuals remains an under-studied topic. In this paper, we address this gap in previous work by exa...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Wang, Cheng, Lizardo, Omar, Hachen, David S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7787529/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33406129
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244747
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author Wang, Cheng
Lizardo, Omar
Hachen, David S.
author_facet Wang, Cheng
Lizardo, Omar
Hachen, David S.
author_sort Wang, Cheng
collection PubMed
description To date, the effect of both fixed and time-varying individual, social, psychological, environmental, and behavioral characteristics on temporal growth trends in physical activity (PA) among younger individuals remains an under-studied topic. In this paper, we address this gap in previous work by examining how temporal growth trends in PA respond to changing social, environmental, and behavioral characteristics using a large sample of college students (N = 692) who participated in the NetHealth project at the University of Notre Dame and from which fine-grained longitudinal data on physical activity and social interaction were collected unobtrusively via the use of wearables for 637 days (August 16, 2015 to May 13, 2017). These data are augmented by periodic survey data on fixed sociodemographic and psychological variables. We estimate latent growth-curve models for daily activity status, steps, active minutes, and activity calories. We find evidence of both a generalized friendship paradox and a peer effect for PA, with the average PA level of study participants’ contacts being on average larger than their own, and with this average level exerting a statistically significant effect on individual PA levels. Notably, there was limited evidence of temporal growth in PA across the 637 days of observation with null temporal effects for three out of the four PA indicators, except for daily steps taken. Finally, we find that social, psychological, and behavioral factors (e.g., large network size, high extroversion levels, and more courses taken) are systematically associated with higher PA levels in this sample. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of social, environmental, and behavioral factors (such as peer networks and daily sociability) in modulating the dynamics of PA levels among college students.
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spelling pubmed-77875292021-01-14 Using Fitbit data to examine factors that affect daily activity levels of college students Wang, Cheng Lizardo, Omar Hachen, David S. PLoS One Research Article To date, the effect of both fixed and time-varying individual, social, psychological, environmental, and behavioral characteristics on temporal growth trends in physical activity (PA) among younger individuals remains an under-studied topic. In this paper, we address this gap in previous work by examining how temporal growth trends in PA respond to changing social, environmental, and behavioral characteristics using a large sample of college students (N = 692) who participated in the NetHealth project at the University of Notre Dame and from which fine-grained longitudinal data on physical activity and social interaction were collected unobtrusively via the use of wearables for 637 days (August 16, 2015 to May 13, 2017). These data are augmented by periodic survey data on fixed sociodemographic and psychological variables. We estimate latent growth-curve models for daily activity status, steps, active minutes, and activity calories. We find evidence of both a generalized friendship paradox and a peer effect for PA, with the average PA level of study participants’ contacts being on average larger than their own, and with this average level exerting a statistically significant effect on individual PA levels. Notably, there was limited evidence of temporal growth in PA across the 637 days of observation with null temporal effects for three out of the four PA indicators, except for daily steps taken. Finally, we find that social, psychological, and behavioral factors (e.g., large network size, high extroversion levels, and more courses taken) are systematically associated with higher PA levels in this sample. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of social, environmental, and behavioral factors (such as peer networks and daily sociability) in modulating the dynamics of PA levels among college students. Public Library of Science 2021-01-06 /pmc/articles/PMC7787529/ /pubmed/33406129 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244747 Text en © 2021 Wang et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Wang, Cheng
Lizardo, Omar
Hachen, David S.
Using Fitbit data to examine factors that affect daily activity levels of college students
title Using Fitbit data to examine factors that affect daily activity levels of college students
title_full Using Fitbit data to examine factors that affect daily activity levels of college students
title_fullStr Using Fitbit data to examine factors that affect daily activity levels of college students
title_full_unstemmed Using Fitbit data to examine factors that affect daily activity levels of college students
title_short Using Fitbit data to examine factors that affect daily activity levels of college students
title_sort using fitbit data to examine factors that affect daily activity levels of college students
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7787529/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33406129
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244747
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