EFFECTS OF MAIL-MEDIATED, STAGE-MATCHED EXERCISE BEHAVIOR-CHANGE STRATEGIES ON FEMALE-ADULTS LEISURE-TIME EXERCISE BEHAVIOR

This study compared three forms of mail-mediated exercise behavior cha nge strategies on the weekly leisure-time exercise behavior of individ uals at different stages of exercise (SOE). Subjects were 113 healthy females, 22 to 50 years old (M=36.9). After being classified by SOE, s ubjects were randomly assigned to receive one of three treatments: lif estyle exercise packet (LEP); structured exercise packet (SEP); or con trol packet. Packets were mailed to subjects at their worksite. After 31-days, 108 (95%) subjects responded to a query about their previous week's leisure-time exercise behavior. A 3 (SOE) x3 (Exercise group) x 2 (Time) REANOVA revealed main effects for SOE (p<0.0001), exercise gr oup (p<0.05), and time (p<0.0001). No significant interactions were ob served. Post-hoc testing showed that those in the action/maintenance s tages differed from those in the preparation and precontemplation/cont emplation stages (p<0.01), and that LEP subjects reported significantl y more weekly leisure-time exercise post-intervention compared to cont rols (p<0.01). These findings suggest the LEP was the most effective s trategy for encouraging weekly leisure-time exercise, Future research should be directed at corroborating these findings and determining the potential long-term value of this strategy in comparison to more trad itional strategies.