Effects of tailored, personalized and general health messages on physical activity

Physical inactivity is a major public health problem. Patient education programs and materials that are customized to address the unique needs and concerns of specific patients have shown promise in changing a range of health related behavior, although findings to date for physical activity have been equivocal. In this study a randomized controlled trial was conducted among 272 adult primary care patients to compare the effectiveness of tailored, personalized and general health messages, and usual medical care in promoting leisure time physical activity (LTA) and physical activities of daily living (PADLs). Patients in the tailored group were more likely to increase PADLs than were patients in the personalized, general and control groups (65% vs. 46% vs. 56% vs. 54%) and less likely to being doing fewer PADLs at follow-up (18% vs. 38% vs. 38% vs. 38%; χ 2=12.2, df=6, p=0.056). There were no significant differences for LTAs. To help maximize the effectiveness of future tailored interventions on physical activity, studies should seek to identify the social, psychological and environmental variables that are most important to include in tailored materials.