Objective Physical Activity Patterns Of College Students Throughout The Academic Year

College is considered a critical period during which young adults establish health behaviors such as physical activity (PA), that tend to track into adulthood and affect long-term health & disease risk. Understanding PA habits of students during this time is imperative; however, PA has mostly been assessed subjectively or only for a short time when measured objectively. PURPOSE: To assess PA objectively throughout an academic year (AY) in 1st & 2nd year college students METHODS: Data was obtained from 1st & 2nd yr students at a university in the northeastern U.S. participating in the Lived Experiences Measured Using Rings Study (LEMURS) during the 2023-24 AY. Students in LEMURS wore an Oura Gen3 ring, a wearable device that monitors sleep and PA. A total of 288 students (75 M, 213 F, 117 1st yr, 171 2nd yr) who completed the demographic survey and wore the Oura ring for ≥18 hours for ≥70% of the 257 days (including school breaks) in the 2023-24 AY were included. PA was assessed using students’ Oura ring data including # of steps, minutes (min), and MET-min accumulated per day during low, mod, high, and mod + high combined. T-tests were used to compare PA by sex, cohort (1st & 2nd yr), and week vs weekend days. RESULTS: Students averaged 11,011.7 steps, 215.3 min in low, 78.3 min in mod + high, 178.3 MET-min of low, and 294.0 MET-min of mod + high per day. The lowest days (≤15th percentile) of steps, mod + high min and MET-min of mod + high occurred during holiday- and mid-semester breaks, and weekend days immediately prior to- and after breaks. No significant PA differences were observed by sex or cohort. Significantly higher # of steps, mod + high min, and MET-min of mod + high were observed on weekdays vs weekends (all p < 0.05) suggesting that walking to class is a dominant contributor to daily PA. CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this is the 1st examination of objective PA data in college students throughout an AY. Variation in PA was observed across the AY with students engaging in more PA when school was in session. Supported by: This study was supported by a grant from MassMutual.