A prospective study of weight gain during the college freshman and sophomore years

Abstract

Objective-To assess the prevalence of weight gain among male and female college freshmen.Methods-Study 1 examined weight change over freshman and sophomore years among 904 students attending a state university in Indiana, from [2002][2003][2004]. Study 2 examined weight and BMI change over the freshman year among 382 students attending a private university in Rhode Island, from 2004-2006. Results-77% of Study 1 participants and 70% of Study 2 participants gained weight during their freshman year, largely during the first semester. In Study 1, weight gain averaged 3.5 kg in females and males; in Study 2, weight gain averaged 1.6 kg for females and 2.5 kg for males. Students continued to gain weight their sophomore year, with females 4.2 kg and males 4.3 kg heavier than at start of college. Overweight/obesity rates increased from baseline to end of freshman year for Study 1 (21.6% to 36%) and Study 2 participants (14.7% to 17.8%). Conclusion-The first years of college may be a critical developmental window for establishing weight gain prevention efforts. Keywords weight gain; young adults; college health; college weight gain Obesity rates in the United States have more than doubled in the past fifty years, with 32.2% of adults considered obese in 2004 ((Ogden et al., 2006; Flegal et al., 2002). Obesity is directly related to a number of health conditions, such as type II diabetes, heart disease and hypertension (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Expert Panel on the Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults, 1998). Rates of overweight Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Elizabeth E. Lloyd-Richardson, Ph.D., Psychology Department, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 285 Old Westport Road, North Dartmouth, MA 02747. Tel: 508.910.6954. Fax: 508.999.9169. Email: E-mail: erichardson@umassd.edu. Conflict of Interest statementThe authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. and obesity appear to be increasing most dramatically among young adults, the 18-to-29-yearold age group (from 7.1% to 12.1% from 1991 to 1998), with those having some college education demonstrating even greater increases in overweight and obesity (from 10.6% to 17.8%) (Mokdad et al., 1999). Young adults gain an average of slightly less than one kilogram (kg) each year, although the majority of this appears to be gained during the early 20s. Furthermore, overweight during adolescence has been found to track into adult years (Guo et al., 2000). NIH Public AccessA life course ap...

Environmental Influences on Young Adult Weight Gain: Evidence From a Natural Experiment

“…Although recent research suggests that the average amount of weight gained by first-year college students-the so-called "Freshman 15"-is more likely to be around 2.5 to 6 pounds, others have argued that college freshmen gain weight at a greater rate than do others in the general population, and behaviors at this age likely influence long-term behaviors 14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23 . In fact, the Healthy People 2010 program urges policymakers to seize the "window of opportunity" to encourage children and young adults to establish good eating and exercise behaviors now so that they might carry over into adulthood 24 , whereas college campuses have been identified as a particularly important target for weight-related policy interventions 25 .…”

Avaliação antropométrica e análise do consumo alimentar de universitários da Faculdade de Ciências Aplicadas – UNICAMP

“…Lloyd-Richardson et al [23] avaliaram 904 alunos ingressantes em uma universidade pública norte-americana, observando um ganho de peso médio de 3,5 kg tanto em homens como em mulheres. Lowe et al [24] consideram o primeiro ano de faculdade como um período de risco aumentado para ganho de peso, uma vez que, nesse período, ocorrem aumentos significativos no peso corporal, no IMC e na porcentagem de massa de gordura.…”

O desempenho executivo em pacientes que apresentam automutilação

“…Figura 1 -Modelo de quatro fatores funcionais da automutilação (Nock;Prinstein, 2004;Lloyd-Richardson et al, 2009) Por outro lado, de acordo com o modelo de esquiva experiencial, a automutilação é mantida principalmente por de reforço negativo, envolvendo a evitação de estados internos indesejáveis ou intoleráveis (emoções, pensamentos, sensações, etc.) (Chapman et al, 2006 Ivanoff et al, 2001;Jacobson;Gould, 2007).…”