Long-Term Exercise Maintenance Via Internet Support

Each year, a significant portion of men and women who engage in physical activities such as walking or running reduce their activity and by doing so place themselves at greater risk of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. Our own prospective epidemiological studies of runners and walkers suggest that during 7.6 years of follow-up over 40% have reduced their mileage by half or more. Research suggests that social support, perceived health benefits, resiliency to interruptions in training, and exercise self-efficacy predict successful maintenance. We have found that runners who successfully maintained or increased their running mileage during this follow-up were more likely to have participated in social events such as marathon, half-marathon, or 10km races.

The purpose of this study is to build upon our current Internet-based survey tools (www.healthsurvey.org) for tracking physical activity and nutrition on full-function activity and diet logs. The existing software allows participants to visualize their accumulated running and walking mileage on a virtual transcontinental route starting in Yorktown, Virginia and ending in Florence, Oregon. To the existing software, we will add the ability to: 1) choose named or anonymous running and walking partners with similar goals and abilities to travel with (or race against) along the transcontinental trail, 2) communicate with partners to provide mutual support, 3) compete as part of virtual running and walking teams created by the user, and 4) be recognized for completing each state on an awards page (optional). Interest in the site will be maintained by providing regular updates on scientific research on running and walking through our proprietary software. The updates will be created from PubMed abstracts that are made more reader friendly by defining all scientific terms in pop-up balloons.