The effects of internet-delivered intervention for promoting physical activity

This study examined the effectiveness of internet-delivered interventions — comprising recording of daily steps, a daily steps graph, goal setting, integration with a social networking service, personalized reminders urging physical activity, team and individual ranking, and a questionnaire — for promoting physical activity. Participants in the intervention group were 253 workers in five industrial sectors: manufacturing (94); transportation and postal activities (32); education and learning support (38); medical, healthcare, and welfare (63); and services not classified elsewhere (NCE) (26). Analysis of variance was used to test for significant differences in daily step count and exercise self-efficacy according to industrial sector (5 aforementioned groups and a control group) and time (pre/post-intervention). Although the NCE services group had a significantly higher daily step count post-intervention, self-efficacy was not significantly changed in any group. The NCE services group was assumed to use a computer as part of their daily work. This possibly indicates that for the effective use of this intervention, which relies on information and communications technology (ICT), participants must possess media literacy and work in a substantially ICT-focused environment. This study suggests it is necessary to enrich the contents of in-ternet-delivered interventions and simultaneously enhance participants ’ ability to use personal computers in order to successfully promote physical activity. recruitment was voluntary (one team consisted of a five or fewer members) and required each member ’ s consent. Eligible participants included 311 Japanese adults divided into 76 teams (216 men, mean age 46.3 ± 12.4 years; 95 women, 40.8 ± 10.8). Companies were categorized into 12 industrial sectors based on the Japan Standard Industrial Classification (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, 2014). In this study, which examined intervention effects by industrial sector, industries that consisted of four or fewer teams or less were excluded to preserve the representativeness of the sample. As a result, the intervention groups comprised 253 participants representing five industrial sectors: (1) manufacturing ( n ＝ 94; 22 teams; 78 men, mean age 45.6 ± 12.4 years; 16 women, 42.5 ± 9.0); (2) transportation and postal activities ( n ＝ 32; 8 teams; 25 men, 47.0 ± 11.8; 7 women, 34.7 ± 10.9); (3) education and learning support ( n ＝ 38; 9 teams; 19 men, 48.9 ± 11.4; 19 women, 36.8 ± 10.2); (4) medical, healthcare, and welfare ( n ＝ 63; 17 teams; 29 men, 46.3 ± 11.7; 34 women, 45.6 ± 10.0); and (5) services not classified elsewhere (NCE) ( n ＝ 26; 6 teams; 18 men, 59.7 ± 10.0; 8 women, 44.5 ± 7.3). A control group comprised 31 participants (6 men, 39.0 ± 7.3; 25 women, 40.9 ± 14.0) who worked at Shimonoseki City Hall. Participants were instructed to work as usual during the intervention period. indicators for the program evaluation. Also, the process of this program was evaluated in terms of exercise self-efficacy, usability of the internet-based program, program utilization, and changes in ranking. For the control group, indicators were both daily steps and exercise self-efficacy. Exercise self-efficacy was measured using the Exercise Self-Efficacy Scale (Oka, 2003). This scale is composed of four items (e.g., “ Even when I am a little tired, I am confident I will exercise; ” “ Even when I am not in the mood to exercise, I am confident I will exercise ” ) scored on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 ( not confident ) to 5 ( confident ). Usability of the internet-based program was measured by asking a single question “ How did you feel about recording daily steps using a PC or other device? ” with five response options ranging from “ not hard at all ” to “ very hard. ” Program utilization was measured by the number of participants logging in to the program ’ s website during the intervention. Finally, weekly changes in rank-order of the top 10 teams and individuals were reviewed.