Counteracting the sedentary aspects of academia by incorporating physical activity into the educational process

In many ways, traditional education environments contribute to a sedentary lifestyle, and this can lead to several negative health outcomes. This study determined the extent of anti-sedentary physical activity outcomes resulting from conducting pharmacy academia rotation topic discussions while walking.

Topic discussions during six, one-month pharmacy resident academia rotations were converted from a traditional sitting environment to walking discussions conducted at a conversational pace. The preceptor's time, distance, steps, ascent, and caloric expenditure for the discussions were tracked via the hiking feature on Garmin Fenix 3 Global Positioning System watch (Garmin Ltd.). Results were synced to the Garmin Connect mobile application, from which they were manually transcribed to spreadsheet software. Descriptive statistics for the variables were calculated.

A total of 46 topic discussions were conducted while walking. The average walking topic discussion lasted 44.62 min, covered 2.13 miles with 3896 steps, and expended 159  calories.

Results of this study demonstrate the various physical activity benefits of conducting topic discussions while walking as opposed to more traditional stationary discussions. Walking topic discussions are a simple way to counteract the sedentary aspects of academia by incorporating physical activity into the educational process without additional time or resources. Opportunity exists for other aspects of academia to adopt similar strategies to benefit faculty, staff, student, and resident wellness.