10,000 Steps a Day to Decrease Chronic Disease Risk Factors and Increase Aerobic Physical Activity Levels Among Capital Regional District Office Workers in Victoria, BC.

Abstract

The mixed method design examined the impact of a 6-week pedometer based 10,000 moderate-vigorous steps a day employee workplace wellness challenge on aerobic fitness, chronic disease markers, and self-reported physical activity. The study used prompts to both educate and facilitate the intervention. Pre and post-test data analyzed self-report physical activity and sedentary time, sub max aerobic walking levels, and anthropometric measures. Participants logged their step count across the intervention and were challenged to increase their steps throughout. Participants were on average unable to achieve the goal step count and thus no statistically significance was found between pre-post tests. Qualitatively, three themes emerged from discussions with participants about their experiences: awareness of physical activity (PA) levels, demands of both work and family, and the frequency and content of the information given as prompts. The combination of prompts and the pedometer created an awareness of PA levels among participants but failed to fully motivate them to hit their target step count.