Evaluation of a university general education health and wellness course delivered by lecture or online.

Purpose: To assess a single-semester university general education (GE) health and wellness course influence on physical activity (PA) and dietary habits among university students and to compare the course delivered through lecture or online for these outcomes.

Design: A 15-week intervention with pre-post one-group design, allowing for comparative assessments in dietary and PA habits across time by delivery method (classroom lecture vs. online).

Setting: A large Western university.

Participants: Participants (n = 1638, female; n = 1333, male) were 82% university freshman or sophomores.

Intervention: Participants were required to take a GE health and wellness course either by classroom lecture or online. The lecture and online curriculum content were similar. Participation in the study was entirely voluntary and was not connected to course grade.

Measures: PA and dietary outcomes were determined from questions used in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey and were assessed pre- and post-intervention. Other validated questions were used to assess fitness.

Analysis: The general linear model was utilized to determine group x period interactions when comparing the classroom lecture vs. online course.

Results: Students improved overall level of PA by 12%, daily minutes of moderate-intensity PA by 8%, and fitness level by 2%. Students improved fruit/vegetable consumption by 4%, bran/whole grain cereal consumption by 8%, and brown rice/whole wheat bread consumption by 11%. All improvements were statistically significant (p < .001) with percent values indicating the size of the effect. The classroom lecture course yielded stronger improvements in several PA and dietary outcomes than the online course.

Conclusions: A single-semester university wellness course may positively influence multiple PA and dietary behaviors; however, classroom lecture may be superior to online delivery.