Background: The transition from the home to college is a phase in which emerging adults shift toward more unhealthy eating and physical activity patterns, higher body mass indices, thus increasing risk of overweight/obesity. Currently, little is understood about how changing friendship networks shape weight gain behaviors. This paper describes the recruitment, data collection, and data analytic protocols for the SPARC (Social impact of Physical Activity and nutRition in College) study, a longitudinal examination of the mechanisms by which friends and friendship networks influence nutrition and physical activity behaviors and weight gain in the transition to college life.

Methods: The SPARC study aims to follow 1450 university freshmen from a large university over an academic year, collecting data on multiple aspects of friends and friendship networks. Integrating multiple types of data related to student lives, ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) are administered via a cell phone application, devilSPARC. EMAs collected in four 1-week periods (a total of 4 EMA waves) are integrated with linked data from web-based surveys and anthropometric measurements conducted at four times points (for a total of eight data collection periods including EMAs, separated by ~1 month). University databases will provide student card data, allowing integration of both time-dated data on food purchasing, use of physical activity venues, and geographical information system (GIS) locations of these activities relative to other students in their social networks.

Discussion: Findings are intended to guide the development of more effective interventions to enhance behaviors among college students that protect against weight gain during college.

The mission of EZ-Sit is to alleviate pain and increase comfort by creating a product that allows users to put their feet up when sitting for long periods of time. This product will connect to any single stem office chair with ease and will provide users with the ability to put their feet up whenever and wherever they work. Our goal is to empower individuals to pursue their goals without the hindrance of discomfort that comes with sitting for extended periods of time. At EZ-Sit we believe that no one’s productivity should be impeded due to the pain caused by a sedentary work life. We hope that this product will bring about physical well being in the workplace so individuals can focus on the day ahead of them. At EZ-Sit, our values include personal health, affordability, and productivity. Personal health is one of our core principles because we believe that people should not have to endure pain while sitting in order to get their work done. We value the integrity of the hard work that many people show while trying to pursue their dreams. We believe this strong drive for personal or professional growth should not have the consequences of pain. We also believe that our solution should be accessible to all regardless of financial situations. Our Vision at EZ-Sit is to create awareness around healthy sitting practices in addition to how these practices can boost productivity and can prevent burnout. We want to encourage people to take a stand about their sitting habits. Our analysis of the foot rest industry shows that this is not the first product of its kind, but the EZ-Sit is certainly the most accessible. Footrests exist all over the internet and in stores, but all of them are independent of the actual chair. These foot rests are one size-fits all and provide no physiological benefits to users who are either too short or too tall. In addition there are chairs on the market that have a built-in footrest. These chairs, however, are very expensive. This effectively excludes a whole portion of the market who do not have the means to invest in the product. We plan on marketing to young professionals who fall into the age range of eighteen to twenty-eight years old. We want to emphasize that taking care of your body while pursuing your goals is not something to be taken lightly. When we have a working model we plan on using social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok to show how the product works as well as educate individuals around the health benefits of this product. Because this product is new to the market it is important for users to understand why it is different from other footrests in the market. Social media will also help to differentiate our product from the others by showing comparisons. We also plan on utilizing slogans that resonate without demographics such as “EZ-Sit, That’s It!” in order to grab the attention of our target audience.