The effectiveness of online health promotion in producing behavioral change in the college-aged population

The purpose of this thesis was to evaluate the effectiveness of online health promotion in producing dietary behavioral change in a college-aged sample. After recruiting 110 college students from American University's Health and Fitness Department, the researcher gave the experimental group access to Mayo HealthQuest Online Service, the independent variable. The researcher used the General Health Survey, based on the Transtheoretical Model, to gather the stage of change from each subject for the three dependent variables: adoption of low-fat diet, adoption of high-fiber diet, and the intention to lose weight. After three weeks of exposure to the intervention, the researcher expected the experimental group to show positive movement towards maintenance for all three dietary behaviors. However, results were not significant. Possible reasons were methodological problems such as the length of study, lack of triggers, and the intervention. Further investigation is needed to understand online health promotion's effectiveness.