title: Does the environment moderate the impact of a mass media campaign to promote walking?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine if a mass media campaign influenced walking differently in people in different physical environments.
  
  
  METHODS
  Quasi-experimental study. Setting . Wheeling, West Virginia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Random sample of adults age 50 to 65 years, response rate: 72.1% (n  =  719 in intervention community, n  =  753 in comparison community).
  
  
  METHODS
  Mass media campaign.
  
  
  METHODS
  Self-reported measures were used in before and after telephone surveys for walking and the physical environment. Measures included 11 environmental walkability items, from which two subscales (i.e., usable sidewalks/aesthetics and facilities) were extracted.
  
  
  METHODS
  Multiple linear regression.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, walking increased by 2.7 minutes per week (standard deviation [SD]  =  231.1, not significant [NS]). When confined to those insufficiently active at baseline (i.e., <30 minutes per day) the minutes walked increased by 92.1 minutes (SD  =  152.9, p < .001). For the insufficiently active at baseline in the top half of the environmental factor of usable sidewalks, walking increased by 19 minutes more than in the bottom half (NS). For the factor of aesthetics and facilities, people in the more walkable environment increased walking by 87 minutes more than those in the bottom half (p < .001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this community-wide physical activity, intervention changes in walking after the campaign were significantly moderated by some environmental attributes. This contributes to the limited evidence on the impact of the environment in enhancing community physical activity interventions. This finding needs to be replicated in other community interventions with greater environmental variation.
authors: Cluster for Physical Activity and Health, Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney, New South Wales 2006 Australia.
authors: Klaus
authors: K
authors: Gebel
authors: Adrian E
authors: AE
authors: Bauman
authors: Bill
authors: B
authors: Reger-Nash
authors: Kevin M
authors: KM
authors: Leyden
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D004779:Environment Design; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008402:Mass Media; D008875:Middle Aged; D009043:Motor Activity; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D057566:Self Report; D040241:Social Marketing; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology*