Effects of Sustainable Exercise Habits in University Students (SUSTAIN-EX)

June 24, 2026 updated by: Yeditepe University

From Mind to Body: Evaluating the Effects of Sustainable Exercise Habits on Cognitive Awareness, Body Awareness, and Sleep Quality in University Students

This cross-sectional comparative study aims to evaluate the effects of sustainable exercise habits on cognitive awareness, body awareness, and sleep quality in university students.

The main hypotheses are:

H0: There is no difference in cognitive awareness, body awareness, and sleep quality between university students with sustainable exercise habits and those with a sedentary lifestyle.

H1: There is a difference in cognitive awareness, body awareness, and sleep quality between university students with sustainable exercise habits and those with a sedentary lifestyle.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Healthy university students aged 18-25 who meet the inclusion criteria will be included in this comparative cross-sectional study to demonstrate the effects of sustainable exercise habits on cognitive awareness, body awareness, and sleep quality.

Participants will be divided into two different groups based on the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) results: the Sustainable Exercise Group and the Sedentary Group. The Sustainable Exercise Group will consist of students who have been performing at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week regularly for at least the last 6 months. The Sedentary Group will include individuals with a weekly physical activity duration of less than 60 minutes or those without a regular exercise habit for the last 6 months.

No intervention or experimental procedure will be applied to the participants. All assessments will be prepared as online questionnaires and sent to the participants via Google Forms.

Before the evaluation, participants will be informed about the study and their consent will be obtained online. Following this, the participants' sociodemographic characteristics, physical activity routines, and sedentary behaviors will be questioned with a structured evaluation form. The physical activity levels, body awareness, decision-making styles, critical thinking dispositions, and sleep quality of the participants will be evaluated using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form, Body Awareness Questionnaire, Melbourne Decision Making Scale, Marmara Critical Thinking Dispositions Scale, and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, respectively.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Estimated)

140

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

  • Turkey (Türkiye)
    • Istanbul
      • Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey (Türkiye), 34755
        • Yeditepe University Faculty of Health Sciences

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

This study will include healthy university students aged 18 to 25 who are currently studying at universities in Turkey. The study population is divided into two main groups based on their physical activity levels: a sustainable exercise group consisting of students who exercise regularly, and a sedentary group consisting of students who do not exercise regularly.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Being a university student aged between 18 and 25 years
  • Volunteering to participate in the study

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Having any diagnosed psychiatric disorder
  • Regularly using medications that affect sleep patterns or cognitive functions
  • Having been diagnosed with a sleep disorder
  • Having a history of substance or alcohol addiction
  • Having had an acute illness within the last 1 month
  • Having undergone surgery within the last 6 months

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Intervention / Treatment
Sustainable Exercise Group
University students who have been performing at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week regularly for at least the last 6 months.
Other: Survey-based Assessment
No pharmacological or physical intervention is applied. Participants are assigned to groups based on their self-reported physical activity habits. Assessment consists of an online survey battery to evaluate cognitive awareness, body awareness, and sleep quality.
Sedentary Group
University students with a weekly physical activity duration of less than 60 minutes or those without a regular exercise habit for the last 6 months.
Other: Survey-based Assessment
No pharmacological or physical intervention is applied. Participants are assigned to groups based on their self-reported physical activity habits. Assessment consists of an online survey battery to evaluate cognitive awareness, body awareness, and sleep quality.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) - Short Form
Time Frame: 8-week period between April 2026 and May 2026
The IPAQ-Short Form will be used to determine the physical activity levels of the participants. This questionnaire consists of 7 questions and provides information about the duration of vigorous activity, moderate activity, walking, and sitting performed in the last 7 days. The data obtained will be calculated in MET-minutes/week. Based on the results, participants will be classified as physically inactive, having low activity level, or adequate activity level.
8-week period between April 2026 and May 2026

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Body Awareness Questionnaire
Time Frame: 8-week period between April 2026 and May 2026
This questionnaire will be used to measure individuals' awareness of their non-pathological bodily processes, such as sensitivity to bodily rhythms, abnormal changes, and variations in body functions. It consists of 18 items. A high total score indicates that the individual has a high level of body awareness.
8-week period between April 2026 and May 2026
Melbourne Decision Making Scale
Time Frame: 8-week period between April 2026 and May 2026
This scale will be used to evaluate participants' decision-making self-esteem and decision-making styles. The scale consists of two parts: the first part measures self-esteem in decision making, and the second part measures decision-making styles including careful, avoidant, procrastinating, and panic decision making. It includes a total of 22 items.
8-week period between April 2026 and May 2026
Marmara Critical Thinking Dispositions Scale
Time Frame: 8-week period between April 2026 and May 2026
This scale will be used to determine the critical thinking dispositions of the university students. It is a measurement tool consisting of 28 items that include sub-dimensions such as reasoning, searching, evidence gathering, and open-mindedness.
8-week period between April 2026 and May 2026
Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI)
Time Frame: 8-week period between April 2026 and May 2026
The PSQI will be used to evaluate the participants' sleep quality and sleep disturbance levels over the past month. The scale consists of 19 self-report questions evaluating 7 components: subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration, habitual sleep efficiency, sleep disturbances, use of sleeping medication, and daytime dysfunction. A total score of 5 or higher is evaluated as poor sleep quality.
8-week period between April 2026 and May 2026

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Yeditepe University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

June 10, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

July 27, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

July 30, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 24, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 24, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

June 30, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

June 30, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 24, 2026

Last Verified

June 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • yeditepe04

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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