Designing effective point-of-choice prompts to promote active transportation and staircase use at a Canadian University

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the most suitable health messages and designs to create point-of-choice prompts for promoting active transportation and staircase use that would appeal to undergraduate students. Participants: Undergraduate students (N = 21; 71% women) were recruited during Fall (2016) and Winter (2017) semesters. Methods: Focus groups (50–80 minutes each) were organized to obtain students’ feedback on the kind of messages and poster designs they found motivational. Inductive content analysis was performed on verbatim transcripts. Descriptive statistics were calculated to summarize demographic characteristics of participants. Results: The major themes revealed that participants: preferred simple designs with tailored messages; had diverse lifestyle-based values associated with physical activity; and participation in activities were affected by uncontrollable factors (eg, time, built environment, and weather). Conclusions: This study provides insights for designing suitable point-of-choice prompts that are tailored for university students in terms of future interventions that aim to improve their activity levels.

Keywords:

• Community health
• lifestyles
• physical activity
• post-secondary students
• prompts

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of Canada and received approval from the Office of Research Ethics at Western University.