Determining the Impact of Walk Kansas: Applying a Team-Building Approach to Community Physical Activity Promotion

Abstract

WK is effective, has a broad reach, and enables participants to maintain increased activity. It also shows promise for broad adoption and sustainability.

Improving physical activity program adoption using integrated research-practice partnerships: an effectiveness-implementation trial

“…Finally, contrary to the idea that observability of effectiveness enhances program adoption [43], the adopters in this study were less likely to perceive that the program was effective in community settings than non-adopters. This was a surprising finding; however, this could be attributed to the unfamiliarity with the integrated research-practice partnership-developed program and the outcomes of its predecessor in another state [27]. Further research is needed to explore this relationship.…”

“…Specifically, Curran et al [23] note that hybrid designs often require compromise at one level of analysis. As program adoption was our primary aim and both programs already had effectiveness data [27,[35][36][37][38], self-reported physical activity was used as a measure of program effectiveness for all participants. The low recruitment rates for ALED led to the lack of more substantive effectiveness comparisons; doing a stratified sampling would have improved our opportunity to assess effectiveness.…”

“…Physical activity interventions Fit Extension-FitEx was developed by the integrated research-practice partnership as an 8-week walking and fruit and vegetable consumption program delivered to teams using information from evidence-based group dynamics approaches to increase physical activity in community settings [26] as well as information from other Cooperative Extension-delivered physical activity programs [27,28]. The group dynamics-and evidenced-based program principles used included the following: developing a sense of group distinctiveness, group goal setting, proximity to other group members, ongoing group interactions, communication (especially around feedback), information sharing, and collective problem-solving [27].…”

“…The group dynamics-and evidenced-based program principles used included the following: developing a sense of group distinctiveness, group goal setting, proximity to other group members, ongoing group interactions, communication (especially around feedback), information sharing, and collective problem-solving [27]. In addition, the program included the well-established [29] individual-level strategy of self-monitoring behaviors of physical activity and fruit and vegetable consumption.…”

“…In addition, the program included the well-established [29] individual-level strategy of self-monitoring behaviors of physical activity and fruit and vegetable consumption. The 8-week duration of the program was based on the experiences of the health educators, published studies on community physical activity (PA) programs [27,30,31], and the typical program length of other offerings in the system. To enhance reach, the program was developed to allow health educators to recruit team captains who, in turn, recruited team members (i.e., family, friends, and co-workers).…”