Accepted Type
Oral
Code
OG3-2-4
Acceptance Declaration
Accept
Additional Information
I declare I have no actual or potential conflict of interest in relation to this program.
Was this work accepted for CCME 2020?
no
Category
General Call (Workshop, Oral Presentation, Poster Presentation)
Type
Oral
Sub Type
Education Research
Will the presenter be a:
Other
Presenter Other
Faculty
Affiliation
Considered for Poster
yes
Title
Walking Learners: Enhancing Wellness without Impacting Performance
Length of Presentation
Background/Purpose
Using walking workstations in non-medical educational and work settings shows improvement in cognitive abilities. Meanwhile, worldwide, many medical learners do not meet exercise guidelines. We investigated the boundaries of improved cognitive performance with physical activity using real-life tasks in participants having varying medical knowledge and experience. We hypothesized that, irrespective of expertise level, physical activity bolsters diagnostic performance.
Methods
30 family medicine residents (FMRs), 31 medical students (MS) and 31 psychology students (PS), all in their Year 2 of studies were equally and randomly assigned desk-sitting or treadmill-walking. Following training slides showing a representative picture and brief description of 4 skin conditions, participants named skin conditions shown in 20 different pictures distributed among those previously studied.
Results
A mixed 2-way 2x3 ANOVA with Expertise and Exercise as factors found a main effect for Expertise, F(2,85)=3.51, p=.034. Bonferroni post-hoc tests revealed the difference in number of correct answers was significant between PS and FMRs (p=.032), while no significant differences were found between PS and MS (p=.320) nor MS and FMRs (p=.944). No main effect was found for Exercise, F(1,85)=0.57, p=.453 nor interaction effect, F(2,85)=0.01, p=.986.
Conclusion
While an expertise effect exists, more interestingly -- perhaps counterintuitively for some -- walking did not decrease performance at any expertise level during this complex task requiring problem-solving and short-term recall. When combined with studies showing that treadmill-walking reduces task stress and boredom while increasing arousal and mood, our study suggests a way to promote and enhance wellness during work hours without impacting medical learners' performance.
Keyword 1
Wellness and exercise
Keyword 2
Clinical reasoning
Keyword 3
Expertise development
Level of Training
General
Abstract Themes
Teaching and learning
Teaching and Learning
- General
- Health and Well-being
Additional Theme (First choice)
Postgraduate
Additional Theme (Second Choice)
Undergraduate
Additional Theme (Third Choice)
Physician & Medical Student Health and Well-being
Authors
Presenter
Malgorzata Kaminska
Term 1
Yes
Term 2
Yes
Term 3
Yes
Term 4
Yes
Term 5
Yes
