"Walk in to Work Out": a randomised controlled trial of a self help intervention to promote active commuting

Abstract

Study objective: To determine if a self help intervention, delivered via written interactive materials (the "Walk in to Work Out" pack), could increase active commuting behaviour (walking and cycling). Design: Randomised controlled trial. The intervention group received the "Walk in to Work Out" pack, which contained written interactive materials based on the transtheoretical model of behaviour change, local information about distances and routes, and safety information. The control group received the pack six months later. Focus groups were also conducted after six months. Setting: Three workplaces in the city of Glasgow, Scotland, UK. Participants: 295 employees who had been identified as thinking about, or doing some irregular, walking or cycling to work. Main results: The intervention group was almost twice as likely to increase walking to work as the control group at six months (odds ratio of 1.93, 95% confidence intervals 1.06 to 3.52). The intervention was not successful at increasing cycling. There were no distance travelled to work, gender, or age influences on the results. Twenty five per cent (95% confidence intervals 17% to 32%) of the intervention group, who received the pack at baseline, were regularly actively commuting at the 12 month follow up. Conclusion: The "Walk in to Work Out" pack was successful in increasing walking but not cycling. The environment for cycling must be improved before cycling will become a popular option.

Meta-analysis of the effects of health promotion intervention in the workplace on depression and anxiety symptoms

“…The 22 included studies represented a total sample size of 3632 (mean 157.9, SD 103.7) employees after the intervention, with a total sample size of 2640 (mean 138.9, SD 93.5) in the 17 studies included in the pooled analysis (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17). The age range of the sample was years.…”

“…Those without a direct focus on mental health (2, 3, 7-9, 12, 13, 15-17) were generally directed towards risk factors such as physical activity, poor work environment, and cardiovascular disease. Approximately 52% of the interventions were "selected" (2, 6-9, 11-13, 15), 30% were "universal" (3,16,17), and 18% were "indicated" (1,4,5,10,14) in terms of their approach to mental health promotion (29). Most of the interventions were individually targeted, and only one study (5) in the meta-analysis included an exclusive focus on the organization.…”

“…Data were coded such that a positive standardized mean difference indicates that the intervention group was superior to the comparison group. Two studies reported mean scores on the SF12 and SF36 measures but not the standard deviations (12,17); therefore, the values were derived from published normative data (49). For studies that compared two intervention groups with the same control group, we estimated the standardized mean difference for each treatment-control comparison; thus a small number of dependent standardized mean differences from the same study was included.…”

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

“…Workplace interventions -promoting 'active commuting' (e.g. Mutrie et al, 2002) or walking while at work (e.g. Gilson, McKenna and Cooke, 2007;Gilson et al, 2007) -can be particularly effective in increasing physical activity, given the proportion of time most people spend at work (Department of Health, 2004b;Dugdill et al, 2007).…”

Interventions for promoting physical activity

“…Halbert 2000 was not contactable and so this study is not presented in the final results. Four studies sent data but the data was incomplete or inappropriate for meta-analysis (Castro 2001;Lowther 2002a;Lowther 2002b;Nies 2003). After excluding these studies with incomplete data, 29 studies remained (Calfas 2000;Cunningham 1987;Dubbert 2002;Elley 2003;Goldstein 1999;Harland 1999;Hillsdon 2002;Inoue 2003;Juneau 1987;King 1988a;King 1988b;King 1991;Kriska 1986;Lamb 2002;Lombard 1995;Marshall 2003a;Marshall 2004;Norris 2000;Petrella 2003;Reid 1979;Resnick 2002a;SimonsMorton 2001a;Simons-Morton 2001b;Stevens 1998;Stewart 2001;SSCT 2000).…”