Physical Activity Intervention Using Point-of-Decision Prompts

The study compared the effectiveness of two different point-of-decision posters, negative and positive reinforcement, in predicting an increase of stair use in a shopping center. Observations were recorded for six weeks, consisting of three phases. Phase one was the baseline group, no prompts. In phase two, the positive poster was displayed, which read, “Step it up for a healthy heart”. In phase three, the negative poster was displayed, which read, “Don’t let your heart down, take the stairs up”. The posters were placed where the customers could read the prompts before choosing whether they would take the stairs or escalators up. Over the course of the project, 3,992 customers were observed. There was an increase of stair use, from 13.7% stair use in the control group to an average of 25.5% for both intervention phases. Both men and women increased their stair use, but no significant difference was found between older and younger customers. There was a larger decrease of escalator use when the negative poster was displayed versus the positive poster-baseline 77.7% escalator use to 53.4% use with the negative poster. The number of customers walking up the escalators increased from 8.60% to 15.1% for phase two and 21.9% for phase three. Point-ofdecision prompts show to have an effect on increasing physical activity behavior. Both the positive and negative prompts had an effect on stair use; however the negative poster was shown to have a greater effect than the positive poster