Class
Article
Department
Health, Physical Education, and Recreation
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Abstract
As one of the Healthy Campus 2020 initiatives, college campuses nationwide are encouraged to focus on reducing the proportion of students who report experiencing an eating disorder/problem within the last 12 months from 5.3% to 4.8% (American College Health Association, 2015). In a survey of 639 Utah State University (USU) students, 0.6% of respondents reported an eating disorder/problem having a negative impact on their academic performance (American College Health Association, 2015). Although this data is less alarming to our institution, we still have significant concerns about students’ body dissatisfaction and disordered eating behaviors such as extreme dieting and over exercise. Therefore, we are conducting a needs assessment project by promoting awareness and knowledge of eating disorders and collecting data by an eating disorder screening test among USU students during the National Eating Disorder Awareness week which is February 22-26th, 2016. During this week, a social marketing campaign will be implemented on the SPEAK USU’s, a student group promoting eating disorder awareness and knowledge, Facebook page in conjunction with on campus marketing to increase the reach of NEDAwareness week. Each day, four media pieces will be posted to the page addressing; access to eating disorder screenings, how to build a positive body image, healthy exercising, and resources for help. These media pieces will be diverse to reach all gender, race/ethnicity, and cultural divides. The on campus marketing will consist of flyers and word of mouth. To evaluate the efficacy of this campaign, we will assess the number of participant’s actively engaging in the social marketing campaign through the SPEAK USU Facebook page. In this poster presentation, we will present the data compiled from the screenings and Facebook engagement, examples of media posted, and ideas for future implementations of social marketing campaigns on USU’s campus.
Start Date
4-14-2016 12:00 PM
End Date
4-14-2016 1:15 PM
Included in
Social Marketing Campaign for the National Eating Disorder Awareness Week among Utah State University Students
As one of the Healthy Campus 2020 initiatives, college campuses nationwide are encouraged to focus on reducing the proportion of students who report experiencing an eating disorder/problem within the last 12 months from 5.3% to 4.8% (American College Health Association, 2015). In a survey of 639 Utah State University (USU) students, 0.6% of respondents reported an eating disorder/problem having a negative impact on their academic performance (American College Health Association, 2015). Although this data is less alarming to our institution, we still have significant concerns about students’ body dissatisfaction and disordered eating behaviors such as extreme dieting and over exercise. Therefore, we are conducting a needs assessment project by promoting awareness and knowledge of eating disorders and collecting data by an eating disorder screening test among USU students during the National Eating Disorder Awareness week which is February 22-26th, 2016. During this week, a social marketing campaign will be implemented on the SPEAK USU’s, a student group promoting eating disorder awareness and knowledge, Facebook page in conjunction with on campus marketing to increase the reach of NEDAwareness week. Each day, four media pieces will be posted to the page addressing; access to eating disorder screenings, how to build a positive body image, healthy exercising, and resources for help. These media pieces will be diverse to reach all gender, race/ethnicity, and cultural divides. The on campus marketing will consist of flyers and word of mouth. To evaluate the efficacy of this campaign, we will assess the number of participant’s actively engaging in the social marketing campaign through the SPEAK USU Facebook page. In this poster presentation, we will present the data compiled from the screenings and Facebook engagement, examples of media posted, and ideas for future implementations of social marketing campaigns on USU’s campus.