Made2Move is a research informed 8-week physical activity (PA) programme designed to provide trained mentor support to physically inactive students by encouraging them to increase their engagement in PA. The programme is located in a University Made2Move Club, which promotes physical activity. This intervention was innovated in 2015 using design thinking (Brown, 2008) by relevant stakeholders within and outside the university (students, academics and community sport leaders).

The programme links physically active students (MoveMentors) with physically inactive students (MoveMentees), helping them to become more physically active. MoveMentors obtain a Made2Move digital badge - studying physical activity theory and motivation theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000). These trained MoveMentors support a physically inactive friend or class-mate to increase their daily step-count. The purpose of this study was to analyse the daily step count of five MoveMentee cohorts during 2019-2021, prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The sample consisted of 274 MoveMentees (54.8% females; 22.97±8.41 years) and their respective MoveMentors. Step count was objectively measured with the use of the pedometer app Accupedo and statistical analysis included descriptive and inferential (i.e., repeated-measures ANOVA) statistics. Statistically significant differences in total steps between week one (baseline data) and the following seven weeks were observed for all cohorts (F=11.64, p<.001, η2=.148). The differences between the five cohorts were more obvious in weeks seven (F=19.44, p<.001, η2=.224) and eight (F=23.14, p<.001, η2=.256). During these two final weeks of the programme, Cohort 3 (affected by initial COVID-19 pandemic lockdown) accumulated significantly less steps (4959±2127 and 4967±2501 steps/day respectively) than the remaining cohorts.

This analysis across five prospective Made2Move cohorts shows that the Made2Move programme was successful in increasing the daily step count of the participants, except from the cohort which was affected by the initial lockdown measures of the COVID-19 pandemic. It can be further concluded that in the case of four out of five cohorts, trained MoveMentors successfully supported their MoveMentees to increase their physical activity levels using a range of means (both face-to-face and virtual) prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Biddle, S. J. H., Mutrie, N., & Gorely, T. (2015). Psychology of physical activity: Determinants, well-being and interventions (3rd ed.) Oxon: Routledge. Brown, T. (2008). Design thinking. Harvard Business Review, 86(6), 84-92. Chambers, F.C., Brennan, D.A, Adamakis, E., O’Sullivan, G. and Kellher, C. (2019). Community Made2Move. International Sport and Culture Association Move Congress, Budapest 16-19 Ocober Deci, E.L. & Ryan, R.M. (2000) The "What" and "Why" of Goal Pursuits: Human Needs and the Self-Determination of Behavior. Psychological Inquiry, Vol. 11, No. 4 (2000), pp. 227-268 Irwin, J. D. (2004). Prevalence of university students' sufficient physical activity: a systematic review. Perceptual and motor skills, 98(3), 927-943. https://doi.org/10.2466/pms.98.3.927-943 ISPAH (2020). ISPAH’s eight investments that work for physical activity. Retrieved online from https://www.ispah.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/English-Eight-Investments-That-Work-FINAL.pdf Medvene, L. (1992). Self-help groups, peer helping, and social comparison. In S. Spacapan and S. Oskamp (Eds.), Helping and being helped: Naturalistic studies (pp. 49-81). Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee (2018). Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee Scientific Report. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved online from https://health.gov/paguidelines/second-edition/report/pdf/PAG_Advisory_Committee_Report.pdf Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55, 68-78. Telama, R. (2009). Tracking of physical activity from childhood to adulthood: a review. Obesity Facts, 2(3), 187-195. https://doi.org/10.1159/000222244 Tudor-Locke, C., & Bassett, D. R., Jr (2004). How many steps/day are enough? Preliminary pedometer indices for public health. Sports Medicine, 34(1), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.2165/00007256-200434010-00001 WHO (2020). Guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour: At a glance. Geneva: World Health Organization. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.