Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate long-term effect of physical education intervention for university students.

Methods: The subjects were 224 university students who participated in physical education class; intervention group 104 students (49 males, 55 females), control group 120 students (52 males, 68 females). All of data was obtained through questionnaires and interview. Their questionnaires consisted of personal characteristics, skills relating to bachelor’s degree ability (communication skill, teamwork skill, problem-solving skill, leadership skill) and exercise behavior (stage of exercise behavior change, self-efficacy for exercise, decisional balance). The questionnaires and interview date were obtained “at the beginning of a semester (pre)”, “at the end of a semester (post)”, and “one year after the end of semester (one year follow up)”. Communication program and behavioral change technique were applied to the intervention group.

Results and conclusions: As a result, it was clear that stage of exercise behavior changed in the intervention group. Comparing “pre” with “one year follow up,” the ratio of students with improved stage was 56.7%, the ratio of students with maintained stage was 25.0%, and the ratio of students with worsened stage was 18.3%. Additionally, comparing “post” with “one year follow up” the ratio of students with improved stage was 34.6%, the ratio of students with maintained stage was 37.5%, and the ratio of students with worsened stage was 27.9%. The results of one-way analysis of variance showed that “perceived benefits of exercise”, “appropriate transmission skill”, “teamwork skill” and “leadership skill” significantly increased after the intervention. As a result of T-test comparing of intervention group and control group, significant difference was observed in “self-efficacy for exercise”, “perceived benefits of exercise”, “teamwork skill” and “leadership skill”. These results indicated that long-term effect of university physical education, which consists of communication program and behavioral change technique. Moreover, the interview data supported the statistic data and showed which parts of intervention program were factors for increasing skills relating to bachelor’s degree ability and exercise behavior.