Background/Purpose: To assess the effects of a 10-week Project PHIT intervention on university employees.
Method: Grounded in social support theory, Project PHIT was designed to help employees improve health behaviors such as physical activity and nutritional intake, and increase fitness. Participants (N = 26, 81% female, mean age = 41 + 12.28 y) met twice a week for 60 minutes/session to participate in educational and exercise activities. Health-related fitness variables measured before and after the intervention included blood pressure, body weight, regular activity participation and aerobic fitness. Participants completed 4 questionnaires to gather demographic data, assess level of social support, detect physical activity changes, and estimate fruit/vegetable/fiber intake.
Analysis/Results: The majority of participants (24 of 26) attended 86% of the sessions. Repeated Measures MANOVA analyses indicated: (a) significant positive physiological changes (e.g., weight loss, reduced blood pressure, and increased VO2max, p = 0.016), (b) improved fruit, vegetable and fiber intake (p= 0.001), and (c) increased participation in aerobic, muscular strength, and flexibility activities, and average number of steps (p=0.001). Positive changes were also observed in exercise and nutrition related social support (p < 0.001). Perceived nutrition based social support was positively correlated with participants' positive changes in vegetable and fiber intake (r= 0.48, p = 0.02 and r= 0.40, p = 0.05, respectively).
Conclusions: University employees responded positively to the Project PHIT program. The use of social support as a behavioral change strategy in conjunction with a variety of physical activities may be useful for modifying health behaviors.