Impact of a Three-week Pedometer Intervention on High School Students' Daily Step Counts and Perceptions of Physical Activity

Abstract

There is a pressing need to promote simple, healthy physical activities in West Virginia, especially to the growing number of inactive adolescents. The purpose of the study was to measure the impact of pedometers on daily step counts and perceptions of physical activity. Across four high schools, 165 students were recruited and randomly assigned to a pedometer-only group or a pedometer plus goal setting group. Students wore their pedometers daily for three weeks and reported steps on a weekly basis. Attrition was low for both survey (16%) and pedometer (22%) data, suggesting good internal validity for the intervention. Overall less than 25% of participants met recommended step guidelines, with mean daily steps ranging from 8800–9400. Further, neither of the two intervention groups significantly increased steps. There was no evidence that self-efficacy, barriers, or outcome expectations mediated changes in step counts, From the qualitative data, 70% of participants reported that their awareness or motivation towards health and physical activity was positively impacted by using pedometers. The short length of the pedometer intervention coupled with environmental barriers may have limited the effectiveness of the pedometer intervention in this setting.