Results of a Tailored Internet-Plus-Email
Intervention to Increase Physical Activity in Women
Overview
It is recommended that all adults engage in 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical
activity on most days of the week to prevent chronic diseases, about 60 minutes
of physical activity to maintain a healthy body weight and up to 90 minutes of physical
activity to sustain weight loss in adulthood. Recent estimates suggest that only
47.7 percent of adult women and 50.5 percent of men report participation in 30+
minutes of moderate physical activity on five or more days per week or vigorous
physical activity for 20+ minutes on three or more days per week (CDC, 2007). Given
this, there is growing interest in developing interventions that effectively promote
physical activity. Dairy Council of California created the Women’s Fitness
Planner, an interactive online program that produces individualized activity feedback
on the basis of information provided in a questionnaire. The planner is a complement
to online nutrition tools that also encourage consumers to improve their health
through diet. The tool includes our behavior change process, identifying the visitors’
current level of activity, their barriers to activity and motivators. The tool then
retrieves tailored messages to the user based on the barriers, motivations and level
of activity. Users can then select personal goals to improve their activity levels.
The purpose of the study was to preliminarily evaluate the feasibility and efficacy
of an individually tailored, Internet-plus-email physical-activity intervention
designed for adult women. Over 150 healthy, adult California females were randomly
assigned to an intervention (access to a tailored website and weekly emails) or
wait-list control group. The intervention consisted of the Women’s Fitness
Planner, since updated to the MyFitness Planner on
Dairy Council of California and
Meals Matter websites. Participants completed web-based questionnaires
of physical activity, stage of change and psychosocial variables at baseline, one
month, two months and three months.
After three months, the intervention group reported significantly more walking (204
minutes per week) than the control group (150 minutes per week). Also, a greater
percentage of intervention (73 percent) than control (59 percent) participants were
in the action or maintenance stage after three months. The intervention did not
impact total moderate-to-vigorous physical activity or any of the psychosocial variables.
- The group increased their physical activity level by 37 minutes each week compared
to the control group which decreased their activity level by 5 minutes per week.
- Intervention-group participants who had lower levels of education, an annual household
income of less than $50,000 and were never married or divorced were associated with
opening more emails.
- There was a trend toward greater activity in those who clicked more links in the
emails. Participants who opened eight or more links increased their vigorous physical
activity by 65 minutes compared to participants who clicked through to fewer than
five links and increased their activity by 10-20 minutes per week.
- Participants were satisfied with the online activity planner, Meals Matter website
and the follow-up emails.
The results of the study indicated that a tailored, Internet-based intervention
for adult women had a positive effect on walking and stage of change in an ethnically
diverse sample. Internet-based programs may help to overcome many of the barriers
that women face to participate in activity programs and provide an additional tool
for health professionals to use in counseling their clients.
View the PowerPoint presentation presented at Society of
Behavioral Medicine’s 2008 Annual Conference Paper Session Logging In to Lose
Weight: Web-Based Approaches to Weight Loss.
View the MyFitness Planner materials
available for consumers and health professionals and the
Activity & Eating booklet for the complementary paper program.
Fridlund Dunton G, Robertson T. Preliminary Investigation of a
Tailored Internet-plus-Email Intervention for Increasing Physical Activity Among
Women. Preventive Medicine. 47 (2008) 605-611..