Purpose.: To identify impact of an online nutrition and physical activity program for college students. Design.: Randomized, controlled trial using online questionnaires and on-site physical and fitness assessments with measurement intervals of 0 (baseline), 3 (postintervention), and 15 months (follow-up). Setting.: Online intervention delivered to college students; a centralized Web site was used for recruitment, data collection, data management, and intervention delivery. Subjects.: College students (18–24 years old, n = 1689), from eight universities (Michigan State University, South Dakota State University, Syracuse University, The Pennsylvania State University, Tuskegee University, University of Rhode Island, University of Maine, and University of Wisconsin). Intervention.: A 10-lesson curriculum focusing on healthful eating and physical activity, stressing nondieting principles such as size acceptance and eating competence (software developer: Rainstorm, Inc, Orono, Maine). Measures.: Measurements included anthropometrics, cardiorespiratory fitness, fruit/vegetable (FV) intake, eating competence, physical activity, and psychosocial stress. Analysis.: Repeated measures analysis of variance for outcome variables. Results.: Most subjects were white, undergraduate females (63%), with 25% either overweight or obese. Treatment group completion rate for the curriculum was 84%. Over 15 months, the treatment group had significantly higher FV intake (+.5 cups/d) and physical activity participation (+270 metabolic equivalent minutes per week) than controls. For both groups, anthropometric values and stress increased, and fitness levels decreased. Gender differences were present for most variables. First-year males and females gained more weight than participants in other school years. Conclusion.: A 10-week online nutrition and physical activity intervention to encourage competence in making healthful food and eating decisions had a positive, lasting effect on FV intake and maintained baseline levels of physical activity in a population that otherwise experiences significant declines in these healthful behaviors.

Purpose.: To examine the stages of change, decisional balance, and self-efficacy constructs in relation to fruit and vegetable intakes by young adults 18–24 years old. Design.: A cross-sectional project was conducted by 10 states in January–July 2000 to examine decisional balance and self-efficacy in relation to stage of change for increasing fruit and vegetable intake among young adults. Subjects.: In all, 1545 usable surveys were returned (response rate = 55%). More non-respondents were men and precontemplators than respondents. Sixty-one percent of respondents were women, 90.3% were white, and 49.7% were current students. Setting.: Alabama, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Nebraska, New York, Rhode Island, Oregon, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Measures.: A telephone screening interview and a self-administered mail survey. Analysis.: Analysis of variance, principal components analysis, cluster analysis, and χ ² test. Results.: From precontemplation to maintenance, a significant linear trend was found toward higher food intake and self-efficacy for fruits and vegetables. The patterns of shifts in the pros and cons across the stages resembled those of other health behaviors. The decisional balance items were further classified into five component factors that varied significantly in importance across the stages. Four subject clusters were derived (unconcerned, reluctant, exploring, and action-oriented); distribution of the clusters agreed with that of the five stages. Conclusions.: This study supports applicability of the Transtheoretical Model for assessing fruit and vegetable consumption by young adults. Derivation of the four clusters implies the importance of including decisional balance and self-efficacy as outcome measures besides dietary behavior for evaluating the effectiveness of nutrition interventions.