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Health Education Research Advance Access originally published online on September 13, 2006
Health Education Research 2007 22(3):385-396; doi:10.1093/her/cyl096
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Effectiveness of an online computer-tailored physical activity intervention in a real-life setting

Heleen Spittaels1,2, I De Bourdeaudhuij2,*, J Brug3 and C Vandelanotte4

1 Policy Research Centre Sports, Physical Activity and Health, Belgium
2 Department of Movement and Sports Sciences, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
3 Department of Public Health, Erasmus University Medical Centre Rotterdam, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands
4 Cancer Prevention Research Centre, School of Population Health, The University of Queensland, Herston Qld 4006, Australia

* Correspondence to: I. De Bourdeaudhuij. E-mail: Ilse.DeBourdeaudhuij{at}UGent.be

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a computer-tailored physical activity intervention delivered through the Internet in a real-life setting. Healthy adults (n = 526), recruited in six worksites, between 25 and 55 years of age were randomized to one of three conditions receiving, respectively, (i) online-tailored physical activity advice + stage-based reinforcement e-mails, (ii) online-tailored physical activity advice only, (iii) online non-tailored standard physical activity advice. At 6-month follow-up, no differences in physical activity between study conditions were found; total physical activity, physical activity at moderate intensity and physical activity in leisure time significantly increased in all study conditions between baseline and follow-up. Further evaluation of the intervention materials showed that the tailored advice was more read, printed and discussed with others than the standard advice. Most of the respondents in the e-mail group indicated to be satisfied about the number, frequency and usefulness of the stage-based e-mails. In conclusion, although tailored advice was appreciated more than standard advice, no evidence was found that an online-tailored physical activity intervention program outperformed online standard information.

Received on October 24, 2005; accepted on July 17, 2006


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