Enhancing participation in a national pedometer-based workplace intervention amongst staff at a Scottish university

Abstract

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The Effectiveness of an Annual Nationally Delivered Workplace Step Count Challenge on Changing Step Counts: Findings from Four Years of Delivery

“…However, it is notable that the increase of 906 steps per day falls short of the Step Count Challenge integrated goal setting target of increasing steps by 5000 steps on five days per week from week 1 by the end of the intervention. Further, these step changes are less than the daily step count change from baseline to end of intervention reported in review level evidence (+1900) [ 19 ], by the Global Corporate Challenge (+2149) [ 20 ], Stepathlon (+3519) [ 22 ], and a previous small-scale ( n = 20) Step Count Challenge evaluation (+1487) [ 23 ]. These differences in the other studies may at least partially be explained by the inclusion of a true baseline measurement point in these other studies, which is not elevated by the commencement of the intervention.…”

“…Incentives are also part of the challenge and include competitions and prizes, which have previously included photography competitions and best team name. Our own and other's work [23,24] has shown that the…”

“…Incentives are also part of the challenge and include competitions and prizes, which have previously included photography competitions and best team name. Our own and other’s work [ 23 , 24 ] has shown that the Step Count Challenge incorporates a number of behavior change techniques [ 29 ] including: (i) providing information about the consequences of the behavior; (ii) goal setting; (iii) self-monitoring of behavior; (iv) feedback on performance; (v) reviewing of goal-setting; and (vi) social support; some of which are known to be effective in promoting physical activity [ 30 ] and walking specifically [ 31 ].…”

“…Paths for All’s 8-week Spring Workplace Step Count Challenge is a flagship program of Scotland’s National Walking Strategy, and has delivered an annual workplace intervention at scale (i.e., ~3000 participants per year) since 2011. Participant feedback and previous small-scale evaluation indicate this program is effective at increasing physical activity and increased step counts [ 23 , 24 ]; however larger scale evaluation has not yet been undertaken and such research would provide an evidence-base to support delivery. Since 2014, the Step Count Challenge has been administered through a web-based platform, on which participants log their daily steps.…”

3rd Symposium on Occupational Safety and Health Proceedings Book

“…As a result, they characterized PA and individual and organizational factors (Batista Ferrer et al, 2018;Clemes et al, 2016;McNaughton, Crawford, Ball, & Salmon, 2012;Perchoux et al, 2017). Four studies used the accelerometer to collect data about physical activity instead of a questionnaire (Batista Ferrer et al, 2018;Brett & Pires-Yfantouda, 2017). All studies considered the effect of individual factors on physical activity, whereas six studies evaluated organizational factors and just three studies searched about social factors.…”