The use of social marketing theory as a frame work to promote uptake of sleep-conducive music by post-secondary students

• Author / Creator

  Wang, Yuluan

• Background: Sleep deficiency (SD) is a prevalent problem among post-secondary students (PSS) and has serious negative consequences for physical, cognitive, and psychological well-being. In a survey of 1,294 University of Alberta students, 30.5% reported sleeping 6.5 hours or less. The use of pharmacological sleep interventions (PSIs) to assist with sleep, such as hypnotics, has side effects including tolerance, dependency, withdrawal, rebound insomnia, anterograde amnesia, and daytime dysfunction. The use of non-pharmacological sleep interventions (NPSIs) such as sleep behaviour changes has been studied and demonstrates validity in improving sleep patterns in individuals with SD as well as being rated as more acceptable than PSIs. However, influencing sleep behaviour change is not a straightforward process. The use of a social marketing theory as a framework for delivering a NPSI, while focusing on a strength-based approach building on students’ existing sleep related practices, appears to present an evidence-based approach to foster beneficial sleep behaviour change. Objectives: The primary objective of this study is to 1) evaluate the outcome of a social marketing strategy to recruit PSSs to a website that provides sleep-conducive music (SCM). Secondary objectives are 1) to evaluate the rate of uptake for the SCM, 2) students’ adherence to the SCM, 3) students’ evaluation of the SCM, and 4) to compare self-reported sleep quality in students and sleep beliefs before and after SCM use. Methods: This study employed a campus-wide longitudinal prospective design with a pre- and post-test survey. Participants were recruited through social marketing strategies involving offline printed posters and online email invitations. Poster recruitment occurred for four weeks, followed by a wash out period of two weeks. Then email invitations were sent out campus-wide for four weeks. Posters and email invitations directed participants to an online survey. After completion of the survey, participants were directed to a website containing three SCM for download. Follow-up data collection was done one week after initial participation with a second follow-up, three weeks after initial participation. Follow-up data collection was sent out through email, including a follow-up survey to evaluate the uptake and adherence of SCM use, students’ sleep beliefs using the SBS, and the PSQI and ESS to measure sleep quality in participants. Data analysis: data analysis utilized the IBM SPSS statistical analysis software and included descriptive statistics, paired t-tests, Friedman test, and content analysis to analyse descriptive data. Discussion: a higher uptake rate of the SCM was seen in the online advertisement strategy compared to the poster advertisement strategy. Despite evidence-based research suggesting the popularity and effectiveness of using printed posters as a recruitment tool, this study faced uncontrollable external factors, which may have affected the effectiveness of the posters. Additionally, while the online invitation was able to recruit more participants, challenges were faced with delivering the campaign message on a campus-wide level. Conclusion: The results from this study suggests that the use of social marketing and using an online platform is a feasible delivery tool and SCM appears to be accepted among PSSs. The results also suggests that the use of a strength-based approach is promising the SCM may be useful to improve self-reported sleep quality in PSSs. Future study should look at using multiple platforms to build more evidence for the use of social marketing.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • sleep conducive music
  • Post-secondary students
  • social marketing
  • sleep deficiency
  • non-pharmacological sleep intervention

• Graduation date

  Spring 2019

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-5c48-6x12

• License

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