Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2009 Jun;36(6):475-83.
doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2009.01.036.

Improving diet and physical activity with ALIVE: a worksite randomized trial

Barbara Sternfeld  1 , Clifford Block, Charles P Quesenberry Jr, Torin J Block, Gail Husson, Jean C Norris, Melissa Nelson, Gladys Block
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Improving diet and physical activity with ALIVE: a worksite randomized trial

Barbara Sternfeld et al. Am J Prev Med. 2009 Jun.

Abstract

Context: Healthy diets and regular physical activity confer many health benefits, but the prevalence of these behaviors is relatively low.

Background: Cost-effective strategies are needed to increase healthy eating and physical activity in the population.

Design: An RCT, conducted in 2006, of a 16-week e-mail program offered individually tailored, small-step goals; a personal homepage with tips; educational materials; and tracking and simulation tools.

Setting/population: Seven hundred eighty-seven employees in the administrative offices of a large healthcare organization volunteered to participate.

Main outcome measures: Changes were self-reported for total physical activity; moderate physical activity (MPA); vigorous physical activity (VPA); walking; sedentary behavior; and intake of fruits and vegetables, saturated and trans fats, and added sugars in the intervention group compared to the control group.

Results: In intent-to-treat analyses (conducted in 2007 and 2008) that set change in nonresponders to the follow-up questionnaire to zero, the intervention group reported increases of 28.0 minutes/week (min/wk) of MPA (SE=7.4, p=0.0002); 12.5 min/wk of VPA (SE=5.7, p=0.03); and 21.5 min/wk of walking (SE=5.5, p=0.0003) relative to the control group. Intake of both saturated and trans fats (grams/day [g/day]) declined (beta=-0.95, SE=0.36, p=0.01; beta=-0.29, SE=0.12, p=0.02, respectively). The consumption of fruits and vegetables increased significantly (p=0.03), and the consumption of added sugars decreased marginally (p=0.08). The largest changes were in participants who did not meet behavioral recommendations at baseline (increase of 55.4 min/wk of MPA and decrease of 1.15 g/day of trans fats, relative to the control group). Differences between the intervention and control groups were still observed 4 months after the intervention ended.

Conclusions: ALIVE is an effective program for achieving significant improvement in diet and physical activity.

Trial registration: NCT00607009.

PubMed Disclaimer

Publication types

Associated data