At the University of Birmingham, we are currently completing a study exploring the role of social media in health during COVID-19. This involves the completion of a survey (10-15 mins) and is for students in year 9, 10, 11.
Would you be interested in helping us with this?
The process involves sending a link to parents, and then the parents provide consent and the survey link to their son/daughter.
We would be able to provide you with a summary of your students findings about what their activity levels and diet/nutrition behaviours, and what they are looking at on social media – and this could be interesting for planning for PE when we return.
The link to send to parents is below and a video and summary of the project.
I have also included a link for the adult survey if you were also interested in completing this, and sharing in your networks
If you have any questions happy to answer them
Links to survey
Survey/Consent Link for Young People (age 13-15): https://bham.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/optimising-social-media-for-physical-activity-nutrition-3
Survey for Adults: https://bham.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/optimising-social-media-for-physical-activity-nutrition-4
Study Overview
Maintaining healthy and active lifestyles is a global priority, and this has become even more significant during the COVID-19 pandemic. The current social distancing measures have restricted movement, altered access to and opportunity for certain food types, and prevented access to indoor exercise facilities creating challenges for the maintenance of people’s typical physical activity and diet behaviours. These measures may be particularly impacting on people deemed vulnerable and who have been asked to be shielded, key workers (e.g. NHS, police, teachers) and/or people previously active, or those previously inactive.
The dynamic environment provided by social media can be used to promote healthy lifestyle behaviours. For example, our evidence demonstrates that social media can positively impact on health-related knowledge and behaviours through the use and generation of: (i) relevant and accessible health-related content; (ii) socialising and emotional support; and (iii) entertaining and engaging content. Yet since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a plethora of non-evidence-based information has become available, and this information is in many cases only appropriate for specific sub-populations, such as healthy participants.
The aim of this project is to provide evidence-based guidance to support the health-related uses of social media, and to inform the design of effective policy and practice to optimise the educative potential of social media for physical activity and diet during a global pandemic and beyond. This evidence will inform guidelines to help optimise the benefits of social media for physical activity and nutrition, and to minimise potential harms.
The research is funded by the ESRC and is being conducted in the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Birmingham, UK. The study is led by Dr Victoria Goodyear, Prof. Janice Thompson, Dr Jet Veldhuijzen, Dr Gareth Wallis, Dr Ian Boardley, Dr Shin-Yi, Dr Afroditi Stathi, Dr Sally Fenton, and Dr Kyriaki Makopoulou.
Dr Victoria Goodyear
Senior Lecturer in Pedagogy of Sport, Physical Activity and Health
School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences
University of Birmingham, UK
B15 2TT
Twitter: @VGoodyear
Website: http://opencpd.net
Profile: https://goo.gl/Fged65
Publications: https://goo.gl/GSdQf3
Access my latest open access books and articles:
Goodyear, V.A., & Armour, K.M. (2019). Young People, Social Media and Health (Open Access; e-book). London: Routledge.https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781351026970
Goodyear, V.A., Armour, K.M., & Wood, H. (2019). Young people’s engagement with health-related social media: new perspectives. Sport, Education and Society, 24(7), 673-688. https://goo.gl/vzk6UY
Goodyear, V.A., & Quennerstedt, M. (2019). #Gymlad – young boys learning processes and health-related social media. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, iFirst https://bit.ly/2IAbkA0
Goodyear, V.A., Armour, K.M., & Wood, H. (2019). Young people learning about health: the role of apps and wearable devices. Learning, Media and Technology, 44(2), 193-210. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17439884.2019.1539011
