Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2012 Jun 6:12:403.
doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-12-403.

Promoting walking among office employees - evaluation of a randomized controlled intervention with pedometers and e-mail messages

Minna Aittasalo  1 , Marjo Rinne, Matti Pasanen, Katriina Kukkonen-Harjula, Tommi Vasankari
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Promoting walking among office employees - evaluation of a randomized controlled intervention with pedometers and e-mail messages

Minna Aittasalo et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: The purpose of the study was to evaluate a 6-month intervention to promote office-employees' walking with pedometers and e-mail messages.

Methods: Participants were recruited by 10 occupational health care units (OHC) from 20 worksites with 2,230 employees. Voluntary and insufficiently physically active employees (N = 241) were randomized to a pedometer (STEP, N = 123) and a comparison group (COMP, N = 118). STEP included one group meeting, log-monitored pedometer-use and six e-mail messages from OHC. COMP participated in data collection. Reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, maintenance (RE-AIM) and costs were assessed with questionnaires (0, 2, 6, 12 months), process evaluation and interviews (12 months).

Results: The intervention reached 29% (N = 646) of employees in terms of participation willingness. Logistic regression showed that the proportion of walkers tended to increase more in STEP than in COMP at 2 months in "walking for transportation" (Odds ratio 2.12, 95%CI 0.94 to 4.81) and at 6 months in "walking for leisure" (1.86, 95%CI 0.94 to 3.69). Linear model revealed a modest increase in the mean duration of "walking stairs" at 2 and 6 months (Geometric mean ratio 1.26, 95%CI 0.98 to 1.61; 1.27, 0.98 to 1.64). Adoption and implementation succeeded as intended. At 12 months, some traces of the intervention were sustained in 15 worksites, and a slightly higher number of walkers in STEP in comparison with COMP was observed in "walking stairs" (OR 2.24, 95%CI 0.94 to 5.31) and in "walking for leisure" (2.07, 95%CI 0.99 to 4.34). The direct costs of the intervention were 43 Euros per participant.

Conclusions: The findings indicate only modest impact on some indicators of walking. Future studies should invest in reaching the employees, minimizing attrition rate and using objective walking assessment. TRIAL REGISTERATION: ISRCTN79432107.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow-chart of the study.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee. Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee Report, 2008. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC; 2008. www.health.gov/paguidelines/Report/pdf/CommitteeReport.pdf. - PubMed
    1. Helakorpi S, Pajunen T, Jallinoja P, Virtanen S, Uutela A. Health behaviour and health among the Finnish adult population. Spring 2009. National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Helsinki; 2010. Report 7/2010, 211 pages. http://www.thl.fi/thl-client/pdfs/ce5ee5c1-6df4-44c2-bcd7-c3b735019570.
    1. Pelletier B, Boles M, Lynch W. Change in health risks and work productivity over time. J Occup Environ Med. 2004;46:746–754. doi: 10.1097/01.jom.0000131920.74668.e1. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Grosch JW, Alterman T, Petersen MR, Murphy LR. Worksite health promotion programs in the U.S.: factors associated with availability and participation. Am J Health Promot. 1998;13:36–45. doi: 10.4278/0890-1171-13.1.36. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Marshall AL. Challenges and opportunities for promoting physical activity in workplace. J Sci Med Sport. 2004;7:60–66. - PubMed

Publication types

Associated data

LinkOut - more resources