Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Topic
Singaporeans lack exercise. The Health Promotion Board (HPB) recommends at least 15o minutes of physical activity per week to maintain a healthy lifestyle (Health Promotion Board [HPB], 2011). However, a survey by Anlene showed that 7 in 10 Singaporeans are not exercising enough, and 46% of people exercise less than once a week (Choo, 2012). An AIA Healthy Living Index survey corroborates that Singaporeans only spend 36 minutes per-week exercising (AIA, 2013). This shows that Singaporeans are not exercising enough and, therefore, measures have to be taken to get them to exercise more.
1.2 Reason for choice of topic
Lack of regular exercise can lead to negative physical and psychological impacts.
A major physical impact caused by lack of exercise is obesity. Studies by the National University of Singapore (NUS) have shown that lack of regular physical activity and sedentary behaviour are directly associated with an increased prevalence of obesity (National University of Singapore [NUS], 2004). Should a person consume more calories than he burns, excess calories will be stored in the body as fat, leading to obesity (NHS, 2016), which subsequently leads to a multitude of physical implications, such as heart disease and type II diabetes. Most importantly, obesity reduces life expectancy by up to 9 years (Stanford NHS, 2012). Exercising expends calories. Hence with regular exercise, one would expend more calories daily, lowering their risk of becoming obese and developing the aforementioned health problems.
Secondly, the lack of regular exercise has psychological implications such as depression. During exercise, endorphins and neurotransmitters, which boosts one’s mood and reduces anxiety, are released (Johnston, 2010);(Mayo Clinic, 2014). People who did not exercise regularly would release less endorphins and neurotransmitters, making them three times more likely to experience depressive symptoms (Huffington Post, 2013). Hence by exercising, students would be able to feel better and maintain good mental health.
Therefore, it is crucial for students to exercise regularly to be healthy, both physically and mentally.
1.3 Target group (TG)
Our project targets Singaporean students aged 13-16 years old. Secondary schoolchildren spend an average of 18 minutes per day exercising, adding up to only 90 minutes per week (HPB, 2010), as compared to the 150 minutes per week recommended by HPB, showing that secondary students lack sufficient exercise.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) discovered that there is a cycle of weight gain amongst children during long holidays when they are not forced to exercise (Brown & Odgen, 2014). 43% of teens only exercise during Physical Education (PE) lessons (Sports Singapore, 2011, 2016). This shows that students do not exercise willingly and would worsen once students enter adulthood (Davie, 2014) as they are no longer forced to exercise without PE lessons. In a study conducted tracking more than 60,000 Singaporeans from 1990, following them from childhood all the way to when they started work, the biggest increase in the proportion of overweight people came during their transition to work (HPB, 2017), after they have left school and no longer have PE lessons.
Hence, there is a need for schools to inculcate regular exercise into the lifestyles of secondary schoolchildren while they are still in school, so that they continue exercising even after leaving school. This habit must be enforced while students are in secondary school as a study finds that habits in children take root by age 15 and thus, lifelong habits have to be inculcated before then (Jackson, 2015). By inculcating active lifestyle habits into 13-16 year olds, it can be practiced till adulthood, ensuring that Singaporeans maintain basal level of regular physical activity. With enough investment for secondary students to lead an active lifestyle, the aforementioned negative impacts of lack of regular exercise can be prevented (AIA, 2014).
1.4 Project objective
Our project objective is to increase investment in measures to inculcate regular exercise into the lifestyles of secondary schoolchildren.
We conducted 2 online surveys, sampling about 50 secondary school students to deduce first the validity of our causes followed by feasibility of our solutions among our target group.
Chapter 2: Analysis of current situation and approach of Action Plan
2.1 Reasons for Singaporeans lacking exercise
Singaporean secondary-school students lack exercise because of their misperceptions regarding exercise and their lack of motivation to do so.
2.1.1 Misperceptions regarding exercise
Firstly, there is a crucial misperception among students regarding exercise (Sports Singapore, 2011, 2016) which stems from 2 main areas – the belief that exercising is time consuming, and the lack of awareness of the consequences of not exercising.
Students find exercising time-consuming. On a scale of 1-10 with 10 representing ‘most time consuming’, our survey results show that 71.2% of students perceive exercise to be time consuming (score of 6-10)(RJ095, 2017)(Fig.1).
Also, students are unaware of the negative consequences of not exercising. This is illustrated by our survey results, which show more than 50% of respondents unaware that not exercising regularly leads to obesity and other health implications, such as lung diseases, dementia, depression and anxiety (RJ095, 2017)(Fig.2). As students are unaware of the negative consequences of not exercising, thus they do not exercise regularly.
As a result of the misperceptions that exercise is time-consuming and being unaware of the consequences of not exercising, students regularly misprioritise exercising in their daily schedule. When asked to rank their commitments in order of importance, 74% of respondents ranked ‘academics’ as their top priority, whereas 0% of respondents ranked ‘exercise’ as their top priority (RJ095, 2017). Students believe that they are unable to fulfil all their commitments with the limited amount of time available in a day (Singhealth, 2015);(Davie, 2014);(Sports Singapore 2016). Thus, students do not prioritise exercising in their schedule and as a result, are unlikely to exercise regularly.
Thus students need to be educated on the consequences of not exercising and that exercise is not time-consuming, so that they would be aware of the importance of exercising and no longer prioritise other commitments over exercising, thus incorporating exercise into their daily schedule.
Figure 1: Survey results of students’ perception on how time consuming exercising is (RJ095, 2017)
Figure 2: Survey results of students’ knowledge on consequences of not exercising (RJ095, 2017)
2.1.2 Lack of motivation to exercise
Secondly, there is a lack of motivation among students to exercise, which leads to them not exercising. The results of our survey, where 48.1% of survey respondents do not enjoy exercise (RJ095, 2017) (Fig. 3), show that students do not find exercise enjoyable. Due to this, they are not interested in exercising, and hence there is a lack of motivation to exercise. This is corroborated by Figure 4, which shows that the main reason why students do not exercise is due to their disinterest in sports (Singhealth, 2015). The independent research by Singhealth is further corroborated by our survey results, where 17.1% of respondents do not enjoy exercising due to them finding it too troublesome (RJ095, 2017) (Fig. 5). Hence, the lack of exercise among students stems from their lack of interest and motivation to do so.
As students only enjoy participating in activities they are interested in, without an interest in sports, they would be unmotivated to exercise. As a result, students would be unwilling to invest time in exercising, resulting in them not exercising regularly (MCCY, 2015).
Thus, in order to inculcate a habit of regular exercise among students, they have to be convinced that exercise is enjoyable. Only then would they be motivated and interested in exercising, and hence exercise regularly. Our survey reveals that our survey respondents would deem exercise to be enjoyable when they feel better after exercising and get to keep fit (RJ095, 2017) (Fig. 6).
Figure 3: Survey results on whether students enjoy exercising (RJ095, 2017)
Figure 4: Reasons teens do not exercise (Singhealth, 2015)
Figure 5: Survey results on why students do not enjoy exercising (RJ095, 2017)
Figure 6: Survey results on the reasons why students enjoy exercising (RJ095, 2017)
2.2 Analysis of current measures
Currently, there is an insufficient investment into inculcating exercise among secondary school students, which is most clearly evidenced through the following 2 current measures.
2.2.1 Rep with Steps
One current measure is the Rep with Steps Challenge. Organised by HPB, this is a 3-week challenge to rally students from secondary schools to be more physically active by clocking steps using a step tracker, competing to win prizes such as movie tickets and a chance to meet local celebrities (HPB, 2017) (Fig. 7).
Figure 7: A poster from the Rep with Steps Challenge (HPB, 2017)
This programme, involving 2 local celebrities, Shane Pow and Kimberly Wang, encourages students to embark on the challenge through their celebrity appeal. By utilising a proven technique of celebrity appeal (International Advertising Association; The Telegraph, 2009; Collins, 2016), it ensures that students would be engaged and participate actively.
However, there is an issue of longevity for the programme due to its impersonal nature, where students are not continuously engaged by their favourite celebrities throughout the course of the challenge (HPB, n.d.). Thus, they do not feel incentivised to continue with the programme in the future. Coupled with the cyclical nature of the programme, where the challenge only runs for 3 weeks a year, it is short in scale and students would not continue exercising in the long run after the programme stops.
2.2.2 PE Curriculum
Another current measure is the PE classes incorporated into the curriculum of all primary, secondary and pre-university students. Through PE, students are taught a wide variety of games, exercises and healthy lifestyle tips from the start to the end of their formal education. As students are forced to exercise during PE lessons, this would ensure that during curriculum time, they would maintain a basal level of activity and would not be completely inactive (MOE, 2006).
However, PE lessons fail to inculcate habits of regular exercise among students. This is evidenced by a drop in activity levels during school holidays where there are no PE lessons, as well as when students age and leave formal education and no longer exercise (Sports Singapore 2011, 2015). Thus, this shows that without external supervision when they are no longer being forced to exercise in school, students would neglect exercising regularly, showing that the PE curriculum is limited in successfully inculcating regular exercise into the lifestyles of students.
2.3 Approach of Action Plan
Our approach is summarised in the flowchart below:
Figure 8: Overview of our approach
2.3.1 Education
Firstly, our group aims to educate students on the harmful impacts of not exercising, and in doing so, motivate them to exercise. Our group also aims to lead students in practicing short exercises, so that they are able to incorporate such exercises into their life, balancing their time between exercise and daily activities. By doing so, we address the misperception of the students that exercise is time consuming, and the lack of awareness of the consequences of not exercising regularly, thus changing the beliefs and mindsets which they have towards exercise. This can be done through an education campaign, where students are exposed to a wide range of exercises, and educated on the importance of regular exercise (Wakefield, 2010).
2.3.2 Engagement
Secondly, our group would like to engage and lead students to partake in exercise by showing how they can have fun while exercising. This addresses the issue that students lack the motivation to exercise, making them more inclined to exercise regularly as they do not see it as a burden. Evidence has shown that engagement is key in building long term lifestyles (Thompson, 2017), hence by engaging the students continuously, they will be motivated to exercise regularly as part of their lifestyle. This can be done by engaging them through a mobile app.
Chapter 3: Action Plan (1): Education
We aim to address the issue of lack of knowledge on the severity of exercise with an engaging educational campaign, “A Walk In The Park”. Students are brought to Gardens By The Bay where a full day of activities would be conducted to educate students on the importance of regular exercise, as well as to teach students some simple and short exercises which they can perform by themselves.
3.1. Details of phase
Upon entering Gardens By The Bay, students will be welcomed by Sandra Riley Tang and Joanne Peh. The celebrities will share with the students on how they started exercising (eg. what motivated them, best thing they enjoy about their exercise) before the trail commences. Students will then be given a route map, and are to visit different stations located around Gardens By The Bay. (Fig 9)
Each station showcases different exercises of different intensity levels (high intensity vs low intensity), differing lengths of time required and different locations to be conducted in (indoor vs outdoor). The exercises presented are simple, require minimal equipment and are convenient to do. Students will be invited to try out the exercise to enhance their hands-on experience, under the guidance of volunteer sports enthusiasts, who will be stationed at the booths.
For example, students would be introduced to HIIT at one of the exercise stations. Sports enthusiasts would demonstrate the different HIIT exercises like pushups, planks, lunges, dips etc, teaching students the proper form to perform those exercises, to ensure they do not injure themselves while performing HIIT.
Furthermore, at certain stations, students will experience a visual mockup (Fig. 9) of the physical consequences of not exercising regularly, with different stations featuring informative boards and posters, which educate students on how the various organs would be affected (eg. Heart, Lungs, Brain) due to the lack of exercise.
Figure 9: Mockup of station where students experience the physical exercise of not exercising regularly
For example, students will learn about the impacts of lack of exercise on cardiovascular health. Firstly, they will walk through an empty tunnel representing a healthy blood vessel (Fig. 10). They will then walk through another narrow tunnel of the same size, but the walls of the tunnel will be lined with styrofoam, making it harder and slower for the student to make his way through, representing blood vessels clogged with fat deposits due to the lack of exercise (Fig. 11).
The tunnels represent the blood vessels in our bodies, and the styrofoam represents the fatty deposits that build up on the walls of the blood vessels. Following which, healthcare professionals would be present to go over the informative posters. The posters contain information on the negative consequences of not exercising on cardiovascular health, and certain exercises which students can perform to improve their own cardiovascular health.
Figure 10: Healthy blood vessel tunnel
Figure 11: Unhealthy blood vessel clogged with fat deposits
Throughout the day, celebrities will walk along the route together with the students visiting the different stations together with the students, participating in the activities and exercise demonstrations. Personal and direct interactions with students, would further engage them, encouraging them to be more participative at the different stations.
At the end of the trail, students would gather at the flag-off venue where they would be introduced to a mobile app which can be downloaded through a QR code. Hence, despite the conclusion of the event, it will be followed up with long term action plans in the form of a mobile application for students to use.
Figure 9: Layout of the different stations around Gardens by the Bay
3.2 Rationale and Evaluation
‘A Walk In The Park’ has 2 main features, the usage of immersive experience in the form of various hands-on stations, and the usage of celebrity as ambassadors for exercise.
Based off our survey respondents, which would be representative of our target group which we would like to present our action plan to, we believe that our action plan would be highly likely to succeed, as an overwhelming majority of respondents indicated that they believe that our solution would be likely to succeed (RJ095, 2017) (Fig. 12). Thus, this shows that our target group would be extremely receptive of our proposed solution and as such, ensure that they would be appropriately educated regarding the harms of not exercising, as well as learning new short and simple exercises which they can do, in the process clarifying any misconceptions regarding exercise students might have and as such, motivate more students to incorporate exercise into their daily schedule.
Figure 12: Survey results on responsiveness of students to our action plan (RJ095,2017)
3.2.1 Immersive Experience
By participating in the multiple stations, students are introduced to a wide range of exercises and get the chance to try them out. From there, they are able to get a feel of the exercises they enjoy doing and choose a select few to perform, increasing the likelihood of the students being motivated to exercise regularly.
Exercise demonstrations illustrate to students that exercise can be done quickly, thus addressing the misperception that exercise is time consuming. Furthermore, by interacting with the exhibits and information sharing from healthcare professionals, students will be better educated on the negative consequences of lack of exercise and would thus be more aware of the importance of exercising. After their misperceptions are corrected, they will be more willing to inculcate regular exercise into their lifestyle.
3.2.2 Celebrity endorsement
Our group decided to utilise popular local celebrities to aid in the dissemination of our narrative as information from our education campaign would be more effectively conveyed and exercise habits can be better inculcated since celebrities are able to better engage students, as students are more influenced by celebrities which are people whom they relate to or idolise (International Advertising Association; The Telegraph, 2009; Collins, 2016). Thus, students would participate more actively during our education campaign and be more inclined to exercise regularly. These findings also hold true in the local context, where our survey respondents largely responded that they did not have any objections to the celebrities being utilised in our education campaign (RJ095, 2017) (Fig. 13).
Figure 13: Survey results on students’ receptiveness to celebrities
Chapter 4: Action Plan (2): Engagement
A mobile app would be utilised after the education phase to engage the students. “Werk It”, a free smartphone exercise application (Fig. 12), aims to translate the lessons gleaned from the exercise trail into long term exercise habits. Celebrities Sandra Riley Tang and Joanne Peh will play an advisory role for users, guiding and encouraging the user through the exercises. Students would be continuously engaged and motivated to exercise, thus imparting a sustainable active lifestyle sustainable.
Figure 13: The user interface of “Werk It”
4.1 Details of Phase
Upon downloading the application “Werk It” users will be prompted to sign up (Fig.13). Users will then be introduced to the various features of the app by Sandra and Joanne, who serve as role models to explain the importance of exercise on health to the user (Fig. 13). Following which, students will receive rewards for signing up.
Figure 13: Sign up rewards for those who download the application
Figure 14: Opening screen of “Werk It” application
Through the app, users can customise the workout which they would like to conduct- choosing the duration of their workout, the difficulty level of their workout, whether they want it indoors or outdoors, and whether they want it low or high intensity (Fig. 15). They will then be offered various exercise options based off the customisations options which they have input (Fig. 16) with Sandra and Joanne serving as exercise trainers for the respective exercises which they eventually choose (Fig. 17).
Figure 15: Users are able to customize their workout
Figure 16: Various exercise options available based on their customization
Figure 17: Celebrities Joanne Peh and Sandra Riley Tang guiding users through the various exercises
During the exercise, the user will hear sound clips of Sandra Riley Tang and Joanne Peh encouraging them by saying “keep going!” or “you’re doing great!”, for motivation to further encourage users along their exercise journey. Users will be able to track the number of minutes which they have clocked exercising and the number of minutes of exercise remaining which would be required to attain their next award in their “Exercise Tracker” (Fig. 18). Users can obtain prizes for every 500mins of exercise clocked in, in the form of discounts on health related products (Fig 19).
Figure 18: Tracker showing the number of minutes clocked
Figure 19: Prizes users are able to obtain from clocking in 500mins of exercise
4.2 Rationale and Evaluation
“Werk It” has 2 main features – personalization and extrinsic rewards.
4.2.1 Personalization
Allowing users to personalize their workout not only caters to their schedules, but also provides them with a variety of exercise choices (e.g indoors/outdoors/high or low intensity) so that they are able to switch up their exercise routines and will not be bored of the application or the exercise quickly (Schade, 2016). Personalisation of their workouts ensures continual usage of “Werk It” in the long run as the wide range of workout options makes working out more interesting for students. This makes our app sustainable as in the process of enjoying themselves while utilizing the app, students would exercise regularly, preventing the issue of them becoming uninterested in exercising.
4.2.2 Extrinsic Rewards
Sign up rewards are targeted towards students who are apathetic towards downloading the app when it is introduced during the first phase of our action plan. This reward encourages them to download the application, and perhaps even check it out and use the app with the incentive to obtain the reward (Khan, 2016).
Extrinsic rewards also provide an incentive for students to exercise, thus making exercising enjoyable and rewarding for them (Business Essays 2015). This is supported by our survey where 85.2% of respondents agreed that free rewards given after achieving milestones would encourage them to use the app in the long run. This would thus ensure the successful inculcation of a habit of regular exercise among students and enable our app to be sustainable (RJ095, 2017) (Fig 20).
Figure 20: Features of a mobile app would encourage students to use the ap in the long run (RJ095, 2017)
Furthermore, celebrity mascots would make the app enjoyable and continuously engage students to use the application, through which they can realise that exercising is fun and inculcate regular exercise into their lifestyle. Thus, this makes our solution effective as it ensures longevity in usage of our app.
Additionally, students are receptive to the idea of a mobile application following the conclusion of the education campaign.
Figure 21: Survey results on students’ receptiveness to the proposed mobile app (RJ095, 2017)
Based off our survey respondents, which would be representative of our target group which we would like to present our action plan to, we believe that our action plan would be highly likely to succeed, as an overwhelming majority of respondents (96.3%) indicated that they believe that our solution would be very likely, likely or at least somewhat likely to succeed (RJ095, 2017) (Fig.21). This shows that our target group would be extremely receptive of our proposed solution and therefore, the application is engaging and would be able to motivate students, thus ensuring that it would be used in the long run, giving our application suitable longevity. Hence, the government should aim to increase investment towards our proposed action plan as a measure to increase activity rates among secondary students as it is markedly more sustainable in the long term compared to the current measure (Rep with Step Challenge) which fails to engage students to exercise regularly after the conclusion of the activity. The government, through the HPB could help subsidize the rewards provided to users of this application, thus ensuring the continual usage of our app many years down the road.
Some students who download the app may lose interest in it and would not use the app continuously. To combat this issue, our app could disseminate push notifications. Should the students not open the app for more than a week, the app will send out push notifications, reminding the student to use the app to exercise with phrases such as ‘Get back to werkin’ it with Sandra and Joanne!’. Push notifications would include icons of Joanne and Sandra beckoning them to use the app again. This would prove to be useful at re-engaging users who have lost interest in our app as our survey showed that 40% of respondents agreed that push notifications would encourage them to use the application long term (RJ095, 2017)(Fig. 20).
Chapter 5: Overall Evaluation
5.1 Strengths
We have developed a 2 pronged approach in encouraging students to exercise, Education and Engagement. Education, through the use of celebrity ambassadors, ensures that students no longer perceive exercise as time-consuming and are more aware of the negative consequences of not exercising. Engagement, through our mobile app, allows students t0 translate their knowledge of ways to perform different types of simple exercises, into tangible action. Our project equips students with sufficient knowledge of exercises which they can perform, as well as the importance of exercising, thus successfully achieving our aim of inculcating regular exercise into the lives of students.
5.2 Limitations
One possible limitation of our project is the susceptibility of students to peer pressure, thus influencing their actions and choices. Research shows that when one’s friend became obese, through the lack of exercise and the adoption of a sedentary lifestyle, it increases one’s chance of becoming obese by 57% (Kolata, 2007). Generally, research shows that when teens have to make decisions in the heat of the moment or in social situations, their decisions are often influenced by external factors like peers (Dr. B. J. Casey, 2008). Thus, when their peers do not exercise, students would most likely not want to exercise as well, because their actions are greatly influenced by their peers. Hence, this would reduce the amount of exercise done by the students, limiting the effectiveness of our project at inculcating regular exercise among students.
5.3 Future extensions
A future development would be to utilise peer pressure for positive gains. Our app, “Werk It”, can have a “link with a friend” feature, whereby users are each given a unique code. By sharing this code with a friend who also has a “Werk It” account, their accounts will be “linked”. By linking their accounts together, friends would be able to use the app to exercise together. When users engage in exercises together with their ‘linked’ partner, they can attain rewards more easily. This would allow students to positively influence one another by engaging in regular exercise together. Moreover, this would help to increase awareness of our app, especially to students who may not have attended the “A Walk in the Park” activity, thus resulting in more students utilising our app. With more students knowing about the app and using it regularly, regular exercise can be further inculcated into the lives of students, thus increasing the effectiveness of our project.