Achievement of Exercise Objectives and Satisfaction with the Walk with Ease Program—Group and Self-Directed Participants

• Published in: American journal of health promotion Vol. 28; no. 4; pp. 228 - 230
• Main Authors: Nyrop, Kirsten A., Cleveland, Rebecca, Callahan, Leigh F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.03.2014
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Arthritis; Arthritis - therapy; Community Networks; Consumer Behavior; Exercise; Female; Goals; Health Promotion; Humans; Male; Medical conditions; Middle Aged; North Carolina; Rural communities; Selfreport; Walking; Young Adult; North Carolina; Strategy: behavior change; Group; Health focus: physical activity; Manuscript format: research; Joint Pain; Outcome measure: behavioral; Target population circumstances: self-reported arthritis or joint pain; Prevention Research; Exercise; Study design: quasi-experimental; Self-Directed; Research purpose: program evaluation; Evidence-Based; Setting: local community; Target population age: adults and seniors
• ISSN: 0890-1171; 2168-6602; 2168-6602
• DOI: 10.4278/ajhp.120920-ARB-453

Purpose. This study presents group (instructor-led) and self-directed (nongroup) participant achievement of exercise objectives and satisfaction with the Arthritis Foundation's Walk With Ease (WWE) program at 6 weeks postintervention and 1-year follow-up. Design. Secondary data analysis. Setting. Rural and urban counties in North Carolina. Subjects. Four hundred sixty-two adults with self-reported joint pain/stiffness or physician-diagnosed arthritis, age ≥ 18 years, no serious medical condition, no cognitive impairments, English speaking. Intervention. WWE is a 6-week community-based walking program offered in two formats—group and self-directed. Measures. Self-report measures collected at baseline, 6 weeks, and 1 year. Analysis. Descriptive statistics, χ2 and t-tests. Results. Individuals self-selected either group (n = 192) or self-directed (n = 270) format. On average, participants were age 67, Caucasian (70%), and female (88%). Mean minutes per walk increased from 16.7 at baseline to 34.2 minutes at 1 year among group participants, and from 16.5 to 33.7 minutes among self-directed. At 1 year, 59.6% of group and 69.3% of self-directed participants reported continued walking (p = .06). Group participants were more likely than self-directed to do recommended stretching (p < .02) and warm-up/cool-down exercises (p < .01). Conclusion. Group and self-directed participants have similar self-reported walking outcomes but have some differences in their utilization of WWE recommendations.