One-year outcome of an interactive internet-based physical activity intervention among university students

• Some previous reviews on the short-term efficacy of internet-based intervention.
• Our intervention promoted activity through the 1-year including the follow-up.
• In particular, students who did not engage in regular university sports increased.
• These results suggest that an internet-based intervention has a long-term efficacy.

ObjectiveThe purpose of the present study was to evaluate whether improvement in physical activity of students following a 4-month intervention of a university course was maintained 8 months later.MethodsData on 77 students who responded to our scheduled inquiries completely through 1 year were analyzed. Participants of the intervention group (n = 49) using the internet-based physical activity program exhibited significant increases in energy expenditures measured by IPAQ compared with the no-treatment control group (n = 28) through 1 year.ResultsParticipants who did not engage in regular university sports activities (baseline: 450 ± 351 kcal day−1; post: 587 ± 320 kcal day−1; 8-month follow-up: 580 ± 394 kcal day−1) only exhibited significant increases in energy expenditures compared with those of the control group (baseline: 498 ± 341 kcal day−1; post: 414 ± 242 kcal day−1; 8-month follow-up: 347 ± 275 kcal day−1).ConclusionThese results suggested that an internet-based interactive intervention could become a helpful tool in promoting and maintaining physical activity in the long term.