Ecominds-effects-on-mental-wellbeing-evaluation-report

44 <strong>Ecominds</strong> <strong>effects</strong> on mental wellbeing4.8.2 Importance of exerciseParticipants were asked to gauge “how importantis taking part in exercise to you [at the moment]?”by placing a cross somewhere on an importancescale of 0-5, where 0 is ‘not very important’ and5 represents ‘very important’. Although the meanimportance of exercise scores slightly increased fromthe beginning (M=3.30 ±1.11) to the end (M=3.74 ±3.13)of the <strong>Ecominds</strong> scheme, this finding was not found tobe statistically significant for either the within groupstudy 171 or for the between groups study 172 . Howevera little over half of the <strong>Ecominds</strong> participants (53%)did experience an increase in exercise importancescores (Figure 13). No statistical differences betweengenders and ages were found.4.8.3 Importance of healthy foodParticipants were then asked “how important is eatinghealthy food to you?” and answered by placing a crosssomewhere on an importance scale of 0-5, where 0 is‘not very important’ and 5 is ‘very important’.For both the within group 173 and the between groupsstudy 174 , the mean importance of eating healthy foodscores slightly increased from the start to the end of the<strong>Ecominds</strong> scheme, but these findings were not found tobe statistically significant. Again, no statistical differencesbetween genders and ages were found either.However, the majority (50%) of participants in thewithin group study experienced an increase inimportance of eating healthy food scores (Figure 14).Figure 13. Proportion of participants experiencing change inimportance of exercise scores after <strong>Ecominds</strong>29%18%53%Increased Stayed the same DecreasedFigure 14. Proportion of participants experiencing change inimportance of eating healthy food scores after <strong>Ecominds</strong>29%53%18%Increased Stayed the same Decreased171 [t(179) =-1.841, P>.05]172 Data showed no real change in mean scores of those participantscompleting questionnaires at the end of their involvement with<strong>Ecominds</strong> (M=3.37 ± 1.04) compared to those people who filled outquestionnaires at the start of the programme (M=3.45 ± 1.06; p=.45)173 [Start (M=3.31 ±1.18); End (M=3.44 ±1.08); t(179) =-1.593, P>.05]174 [Start (M=3.50 ± 1.09); End (M=3.51 ± 1.09); p=.93]