Walking towards health in a university community: A feasibility study

Objective: Using a randomised control trial design, this study assessed the impact of two walking interventions, on the work day step counts and health of UK academic and administrative, university employees. Method: A convenience sample of 58 women (age 42 ± 10 years) and 6 men (age 40 ± 11 years) completed baseline and intervention measures for step counts, % body fat, waist circumference and systolic/diastolic blood pressure, during a ten-week period (October to December, 2005). Before intervention, baseline step counts (five working days) were used to randomly allocate participants to a control (maintain normal behaviour, n = 22) and two treatment groups ("walking routes", n = 21; "walking in tasks", n = 21). Intervention effects were evaluated by calculating differences between pre-intervention and intervention data. A one-way ANOVA analysed significant differences between groups. Results: A significant intervention effect (p < 0.002) was found for step counts, with mean differences indicating a decrease in steps for the control group (- 767 steps/day) and increases in the "walking routes" (+ 926 steps/day) and "walking in tasks" (+ 997 steps/day) groups. Small, non-significant changes were found in % body fat, waist circumference and blood pressure. Conclusions: Findings have implications for work-based physical activity promotion and the development of walking interventions within the completion of work-based tasks.