Partnering With Libraries to Promote Walking Among Community-Dwelling Adults: A Kingston Gets Active Pilot Pedometer-Lending Project

Abstract

Most adults do not walk enough to obtain health benefits. Pedometers have been successfully utilized to motivate and increase walking. Given that libraries are a place where community members seek health resources, they are a logical setting for increasing community accessibility to pedometers. The purpose was to examine the feasibility of lending pedometers to library patrons to increase walking. In five Canadian public libraries, 90 pedometers were made available for 6 months. A total of 41 library patrons (33 women, 8 men, age range 18 to 65 or older) completed a survey about their walking patterns and pedometer use. More than 330 loans were made. Chisquare analysis found significant associations between walking and motivation to walk more (p < .05), walking and goal setting (p < .05), and motivation to walk more and setting a walking goal (p < .001). Results provide preliminary evidence that lending pedometers through local libraries is an effective, low-cost approach to enhance walking in community members.

Physicians promoting physical activity using pedometers and community partnerships: a real world trial

“…To our knowledge, there have been five pedometer-based studies conducted in primary care settings23–27 and four pedometer-based community interventions 21 28–30. Of these, three studies included pedometers in a PA intervention delivered by clinical staff (ie, not physicians) 23 25 27.…”

Reported theory use in walking interventions: a literature review and research agenda

“…The following section outlines the reported behaviour change theories that have been used to increase walking behaviour. There were four interventions (Perry et al, 2007;Estabrooks et al, 2008;Ryder et al, 2009;Strath et al, 2011) which reported multiple theory usage. Therefore, a total of 18 different theories are reported across 14 interventions.…”

“…The Social Cognitive Theory was found in some cases to be either fully effective in changing walking behaviour (Perry et al, 2007;De Cocker et al, 2008;Estabrooks et al, 2008;Furber et al, 2010) or partially effective (Merom et al, 2007;Merom et al, 2009;Ryder et al, 2009;Strath et al, 2011). Fifty-percent of the interventions (4/8) based on the Social Cognitive Theory reported increases in walking behaviour while 50% reported mixed effects.…”

“…Core Social Cognitive Theory constructs such as reciprocal determinism and self-efficacy were not evident in walking interventions identified in this review. Using longer intervention-periods (Merom et al, 2007), overcoming environmental barriers for walking (Merom et al, 2009), measuring walking by step-count, addressing the barriers of pedometer use, using larger and more diverse samples (Ryder et al, 2009) and using different intervention delivery methods (Strath et al, 2011) and using more constructs were recommended by the authors to improve interventions using Social Cognitive Theory.…”

Walking: the first steps in cardiovascular disease prevention

“…For cardiac patients not attending cardiac rehabilitation, a telephone intervention incorporating pedometer use increased walking levels [59]. Lending pedometers through libraries is an effective, low-cost approach to enhance walking among community members [60]. …”