A team of professors and students from the Milken Institute School of Public Health will track freshmen’s eating and exercising habits throughout their four years at GW as part of a study launched earlier this month.
The study, titled GW F.R.E.S.H, includes an online survey and an optional annual in-person physical fitness test that will analyze a student’s body composition through metrics like body mass index and blood levels. Members of the research team said they have recruited 78 students so far via flyers posted in campus buildings since last Sunday, and they aim to start the hour-long physical fitness tests with 100 participants before the end of the semester.
Jennifer Sacheck, the study’s principal investigator and the chair of the department of exercise and nutrition sciences, said the study will use data like students’ sleeping habits and physical activities to highlight health patterns. She said the data could help identify students’ food insecurity issues and if the University is lacking healthy dietary options on campus.
