Move to Improve: a randomized workplace trial to increase physical activity. Comparison of two email-delivered, pedometer-based interventions to promote walking among insufficiently active women. Growing healthy families: family use of pedometers to increase physical activity and slow the rate of obesity. Effectiveness of telephone support in increasing physical activity levels in primary care patients.
Workplaces are important settings for interventions to increase physical activity, but effects have been modest.
                To evaluate the efficacy of Move to Improve, a social-ecologic intervention delivered at the workplace to increase leisure-time physical activity.
                A group-randomized 12-week intervention consisting of organizational action and personal and team goal-setting was implemented in Fall 2005, with a multi-racial/ethnic sample of 1442 employees at 16 worksites of The Home Depot, Inc. Change in physical activity was analyzed in Fall 2007 using latent growth modeling and latent transition analysis.
                Participants in the intervention had greater increases in moderate and vigorous physical activity and walking compared to participants in a health education control condition. The proportion of participants that met the Healthy People 2010 recommendation for regular participation in either moderate or vigorous physical activity remained near 25% at control sites during the study but increased to 51% at intervention sites. During the last 6 weeks of the study, intervention participants exceeded 300 weekly minutes of self-reported moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and 9000 daily pedometer steps.
                The results support the feasibility and efficacy of the Move to Improve intervention and the role of goal-setting for attaining increased physical activity levels. Research on the effect of email-delivered, pedometer-based interventions on walking behavior and transtheoretical model (TTM) constructs is lacking. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two email-delivered, pedometer-based interventions designed to increase walking and TTM construct scores among insufficiently active women. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two 6-week intervention groups. Both groups wore pedometers, submitted step logs, and received weekly email reminders. One group also received in the emails suggested strategies based on TTM for increasing physical activity. Of the 74 women who began the study, 56 (age=41.5+/-7.6 years; body mass index=31.2+/-6.6kg/m(2); 86% Caucasian) completed the International Physical Activity Questionnaire and TTM questionnaires at baseline and post-intervention. Participants in both groups combined increased weekly time spent walking (p=0.002) and their scores on TTM cognitive processes, behavioral processes, pros, and cons changed (p< or =0.001) from baseline to post-intervention. The changes in walking and TTM scores did not differ between groups (p>0.05). The results of this study indicate that email-delivered, pedometer-based interventions may impact walking and most TTM scores among insufficiently active women. Although preliminary, the findings provide additional evidence that this low-cost method of intervening may be an effective approach to combat physical inactivity in women. We conducted a study to determine if wearing a pedometer affects weight, body mass index (BMI), or mediators of physical activity among families.
                Eighty-seven families were randomized to 1 of 3 treatments: pedometer plus education (PE), pedometer (P), or control (C). Participants in the PE and P groups wore pedometers and were encouraged to walk 10,000 steps daily for 12 weeks. PE group participants attended 6 sessions on healthy eating and exercise. Participants were surveyed about their knowledge and attitudes about healthy eating and physical activity prior to randomization, at the end of the intervention, and 9 months later. Their heights and weights were measured and BMI calculated.
                Children's BMI percentile decreased from baseline to end of intervention (-0.18%) and at 9-month follow-up (-0.08%) but did not differ by treatment. Children's BMI percentile varied by parental obesity status (average BMI percentile was 88.7% for children of obese parents and 78.5% for children of non-obese parents). Parents' weight decreased slightly by intervention's end (0.6 pounds) and at 9 months (1.2 pounds), but change was similar among groups. Attitudes about their physical activity level relative to their peers improved significantly among children and parents wearing the pedometer. Self-efficacy improved for parents wearing the pedometer. Both children and parents felt the pedometer increased their activity level, but most were unlikely to wear it beyond the intervention.
                The pedometer had little impact on the activity level, weight, or BMI of participants. Physician counseling of patients to increase physical activity has had limited success in changing behavior. Providing organizational support to primary care providers and their patients may increase effectiveness.
                This study evaluates the effectiveness of a telephone-based intervention to increase physical activity among patients who exercised <15 minutes daily and wanted to increase their physical activity over a 6-month period.
                This was a randomized controlled trial, conducted from 1997 to 1998, of 316 patients aged 18 to 65 who were recruited from a mailed health risk assessment. Baseline and 6-month post-intervention telephone assessments were conducted by telephone.
                One family physician's patients in a suburban community.
                Three sessions of telephone-delivered motivational counseling.
                Physical activity score (11-item Physician-Based Assessment and Counseling for Exercise [PACE]) 6 months after the intervention.
                After adjusting for baseline exercise, there was a significantly higher level of self-reported exercise among individuals randomized to the intervention at the 6-month follow-up. The mean level of activity at follow-up for the intervention group was a PACE score of 5.37, compared to 4.98 in the control group (p<0.05). In the secondary analysis, which was limited to individuals who received the intervention, the effect was stronger (PACE score of 5.58 compared to 4.94, p<0.013).
                Patients can be recruited using a health-screening questionnaire to receive a telephone-delivered behavioral intervention to successfully increase their physical activity levels.
There was limited and low quality data providing insufficient evidence to assess the effectiveness of pedometer interventions in the workplace for increasing physical activity and improving subsequent health outcomes.