E-mail reminders to exercise and eat healthy are effective in modifying behavior, according to results of a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The e-mail program, called ALIVE (A Lifestyle Intervention Via E-mail), led to both immediate and long-term improvements in participants’ eating habits and level of physical activity, according to researchers.

A team of researchers led by Barbara Sternfeld, PhD, of Kaiser Permanente Northern California, conducted a randomized, controlled trial of 787 people in order to evaluate the effectiveness of ALIVE. Of the 787 participants, 351 (45 percent) were assigned to the intervention group, with the rest in a control group.

The program, which lasts 16 weeks, is tailored to the participant’s lifestyle and behavior. Participants chose one of three goals: increase of fruit/vegetable intake, decrease of intake of unhealthy foods, or increase in physical activity. Once the goal was selected, participants chose one or two related tasks for each week and then received e-mail reminders on a regular basis.

Of the intervention group, 232 participants responded to an immediate post-intervention assessment, while 317 members of the control group responded to the same assessment. For responders who chose physical activity, the amount of time participants spent walking increased by 27.3 minutes per week compared with the control group. For the fats and sugars group, consumption of saturated fats decreased by 1.56 grams per day. For the fruit and vegetables group, consumption increased by .45 cup-equivalents per day.

The benefits of the program were also evident at a four-month follow-up, according to the researchers.

“Given the ease of administration of ALIVE and the potential for its wide dissemination,” the authors write, “ALIVE may be capable of having a positive and measurable impact on the health of the population as a whole.”