Results of Lifestyles Data

2002 - 2003

The project has grown significantly such that students in West Virginia (WV) students and Mali students are conducting scientific research by monitoring a population in their locale on diet, exercise, body mass index, blood pressure, and heart rate while participants ride a fitness bike.

Students are being mentored by medical experts in both countries, as well as receiving training in the ethical standards set forth by the National Institutes of Health. To facilitate this, WVU-HSTA faculty have received approval from WVU's Institutional Review Board for human subjects study in both countries.

Here are the results from this past year. Percentages, Averages, and T-Tests were conducted with Excel.

What questions do you have? What data would you like to gather?

The population sample is composed of:

(the complete data set is available to any interested parties).

33 female and 19 male high school students from across WV, mostly athletes and a couple teachers.
12 female and 16 male high school students from Lycee Kankou Moussa (LKM) in Bamako, Mali, and a couple teachers.

 
  Those Who Eat Low Fat Diet
 

males

females

WV

21%

27%

Mali

69%

75%

Conclusions/Discussion: By far, the LKM students eat much less fat than the WVian students. Check out the results from Lifestyles 2000-2002 to see what foods are in the Malian diet.

Future Questions: If the majority of WVians eat a HIGH FAT diet, what is the state of health in WV communities? What cultural factors play a role in diet? What low fat Malian foods could WVians incorporate into their diet?

 
  Those Who Eat Low Sugar Diet
 

males

females

WV

none

12%

Mali

25%

78%

Conclusions/Discussion: The number of students in both countries who eat a low sugar diet are even less than for low fat diet. Check out the results from Lifestyles 2000-2002 to see what types of food contain sugar in the WVian student diet.

Future Questions: What does it mean if a food item is low in fat but high in sugar? Which is worse, high fat or high sugar? What high sugar food items could you replace with foods that contain complex sugars instead of simple sugars?

 

Number of Daily Servings of Fruits/Veggies

WV - 68% of males daily servings are 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 5. 83% of WV females daily servings are 0,1,1,1,1,2,2,2,2,2,2, 2,2,2,2,4,4,4,5.

Mali - Only 1 male and 1 female answered 3 daily servings and 2 daily servings, respectively.
Conclusions/Discussion: Many WVian students eat a low number of daily servings of fruits/veggies, and only 2 LKM students answered. It seems that this survey question did not make sense to Mali students, because their diet actually consists of many frutis and vegetables.

Future Questions: What is a healthy number of daily servings of fruits and veggies? Why might WV females eat more fruits/veggies than WV males?

 
  Not Sure about Fruit/Veggie Servings
 

males

females

WV

32%

27%

Mali

94%

92%

Conclusions/Discussion: This question does not appear to make sense to LKM students (as well as some WVian students), because if you examine the Malian diet it is extremely high in whole grains, fruits, and veggies.

Future Questions: Why might this question not make sense to a Malian or a WVian? How can we make all people aware of the importance of eating right?

 
People Who Exercise 20min/3x week
 

males

females

WV

68%

73%

Mali

94%

83%

Conclusions/Discussion: Many of the WVian students in this study are high school athletes, but still the LKM students exercise more than the WVian students.

Future Questions: What types of exercise do Malian students do (see description)? If the population in this study was a random sample of WV persons, how would the percentages change for Exercise?

 
BMI Averages
 

males

females

WV

23.89 stdev=4.61

22.91 stdev=5.35
Mali 19.9 stdev=2.49 21.25 stdev=3.67

ttest=.004

not significant

Conclusions/Discussion: The bmi for WV student males is significantly higher than the bmi for LKM student males. There is no significant difference between females, although the bmi for WV females is still higher than the bmi for LKM females.

Future Questions: If the population in this study was a random sample of WV persons, how would the averages change for BMI?

 
Average Heart Rate
 

males

females

WV

72.41 stdev=4.61

85.67 stdev=17.98
Mali 79.94 stdev=2.48 86.08stdev=7.73
 

not significant

not significant
Total 74.61 stdev=15.10 85.44 stdev=6.04

ttest=.0015

Conclusions/Discussion: There is no significant difference in heart rate between WV and LKM students. But there is a significant difference in heart rate between all males and females, with females always having a higher heart rate.

Future Questions: Why is there such a big difference in heart rate between males and females? Why is the heart rate higher for females than males?


Initial Systolic
 

males

females

WV

126.68 stdev=12.56

114.41 stdev=12.68
Mali 102.31stdev=6.00 99.75 stdev=7.51
 

ttest=.0000000004

not significant

Conclusions/Discussion: The systolic number is the upper number in the blood pressure measurement and represents the maximum force exerted by the heart against the blood vessels during the heart's pumping phase. The defining systolic number is 140 and a higher measurement indicates a need for blood-pressure reduction through lifestyle change. There is a highly significant difference in this measurement between WV males and LKM males, but not so between WV females and LKM females. Also, the systolic is always higher in males than in females.

Preliminary results showed that the diastolic measurement (the lower number in the blood pressure measurement, which represents the resting pressure during the heart's relaxation phase) was also significantly different between WV and LKM students.

The blood pressure monitors used by students this past year may not be accurate, because inconsistent readings were found. Next year all blood pressure readings will be conducted by medical experts using standard hand-held sphygmomanometers.

Future Questions: Do females compensate for a lower systolic measurement by having a higher heart rate?

Overall conclusions: The WVian diet is much higher in fat and sugar than Malian diet, and Malians do more physical exercise than WVians. Yet, according to this study the systolic measurement and bmi is only significantly higher for WV males compared to LKM males, and not so between WV females and LKM females.

Future Questions: If a person were to ask which health parameters are affected by a high fat and high sugar diet, it would appear to be the blood pressure more than heart rate and bmi. Does scientific research support this theory or not?

What questions do you have? What data would you like to gather?

Join this project!

Back to Lifestyles