Intervention have moderate effect in increasing physical activity in University Students, a Meta-Analysis.

The transition to college for emerging adults is associated with changes in diet, eating, and physicalactivity that may lead to weight gain. Targeting physical activity during this important emergingadulthood period represents a unique opportunity to teach healthy habits to many emerging adults.This meta-analysis quantifies the effect of physical activity interventions on increasing physicalactivity in samples with university students. We included studies using randomized control trialdesigns that had self-reported or objective measures of physical activity. 18 publications wereincluded in the final (N =2872) random-effects model. The sample-weighted increase of physicalactivity was of a medium size (Cohen’s d = 0.52), but not reliable (CI: -0.28 to 1.31), indicating therewas a large amount of heterogeneity in effect sizes both within studies and across different studies.A secondary analysis using pre- to follow-up time points revealed a medium increase in physical activity (Cohen’s d = 0.55), however this also was not significant. Additionally, there was nodifference between whether interventions were conducted in person or through another format (i.e.online or integrative approach). In conclusion, although the reliability of the finding is low, themoderate effect size of physical activity interventions in college students underlines the importanceof developing and testing interventions to improve young adults’ physical activity in college.