A Workplace Intervention to Promote Stair Climbing: Greater Effects in the Overweight

Abstract:
EVES, FRANK F., OLIVER J. WEBB, AND NANETTE MUTRIE. A workplace intervention to promote stair climbing: greater effects in the overweight. Obesity. 2006; 14:2210 –2216.
Objective: Stair climbing is a lifestyle physical activity that uses more calories per minute than jogging. This study tested an intervention designed to promote stair climbing in a workplace. Because previous studies provide only equivocal evidence of the effects of increased stair climbing in worksites, a formal comparison of the effects of the intervention on stair ascent and descent was made.
Research Methods and Procedures: In a five-story public sector building, a 2-week baseline was followed by 6 weeks of an intervention involving a 231⁄2- 161⁄2-inch poster in the lobby, the same poster and six messages affixed to the stair risers between floors, and an 113⁄4- 81⁄4-inch point of choice prompt at the elevators. Stair and elevator choices (n 26,806) were videotaped throughout and subsequently coded for direction of travel, traveler’s sex, and traveler’s load. Weight status was coded using silhouettes beside the computer monitor.
Results: A significant effect of the intervention on stair climbing was greater in those coded as overweight ( 5.4%; odds ratio 1.33) than in individuals of normal weight ( 2.5%; odds ratio 1.12). Although stair descent was more common than ascent, the intervention had similar effects for both directions of travel.
Discussion: Stair climbing at work has few barriers and seems to be a type of physical activity that is acceptable to overweight individuals. The relatively weak effect of workplace interventions compared with results for public access staircases may reflect uncontrolled effects such as the immediate availability of the elevator for the traveler.

My Opinion:

This study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of intervention in promoting stair climbing in workplace. The intervention was composed of three components. An A2 poster (231⁄2 161⁄2 inches) in the lobby displayed a manikin climbing stairs with the extended text of the main message “Doctors have found that 7 minutes of stair climbing a day halves your risk of a heart attack over a 10 year period. There are 1440 minutes in a day. Can you spare 7 minutes to live longer?” An arrow at the elevator button pointed to the stairs with the message “Stairs this way.” Above this arrow was an A4 poster (113⁄4 81⁄4 inches) displaying the same manikin as the main poster and the prompt message “7 minutes of stair climbing a day protects your heart.” The same A4 poster was positioned inside the elevator. Within the stairwell, each flight of stairs between floors contained six different messages positioned on the stair risers, three for each one-half flight. The informational messages, in order from the top, were “Regular stair climbing aids weight loss,” “Regular stair climbing burns more calories per minute than jogging,” “Regular stair climbing is free exercise,” “Regular stair climbing lowers cholesterol,” “Regular stair climbing keeps you fit,” and “Regular stair climbing provides daily exercise.” Finally, the main A2 poster was positioned at the top of each flight  to reinforce the main message. 

The result from this study is not too effective. This is because there are many other factors that can influence the choices between to use elevator or stairs. Elevator availability, distance, company and demographic variation can affects the worker choices. For example,we tend to use stairs for a short journey to the next floor. If there is escalator of course escalator will be the  main choice because it is always available. However, this intervention shows great influence in overweight group. There are many reasons that correlated such as the overweight attempt to self-manage the risk for coronary heart disease as a reflection from the posters. Another reason is, two of the six stair riser banners specifically referred to weight control. It is possible that the overweight were specifically attempting to control their weight.

Displaying posters to promote stairs climbing in workplace might be effective for overweight workers but not too effective for normal weight workers. Overall, it can be said successful with the increasing number of workers using stairs instead of elevator.

References:

1.  http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1038/oby.2006.259/pdf