Students on stairs: a participatory approach using decisional cues in the form of motivational signs to promote stair use

Abstract

Objective: The authors assessed whether an intervention using motivational signs designed in a participatory manner to promote stair use resulted in changes to the proportion of stair to elevator use. Participants: Students of a German university were observed in three different academic buildings. Methods: The study design consisted of direct observations during a pre-intervention period, an intervention phase introducing motivational signs promoting stair use at points of decision and a post-intervention period. Results: The proportion of students who took the stairs on average differed significantly between baseline and intervention phase I (χ²(1) = 12.2; p = .001; Phi = 0.078), baseline and intervention phase II (χ²(1) = 17.3; p = .001; Phi = 0.093), and baseline and post-intervention (χ²(1) = 9.9; p = .002; Phi = 0.074). Conclusions: Simple and cost-effective interventions can increase stair use of university students.

Keywords:

• Decisional cues
• health promotion
• physical activity
• stair use
• university students

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all colleagues from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and student assistants of the Institute of Sports and Sports Science, who provided assistance to the study. Special thanks earned Dr. Dietmar Blicker (head of sports association at the KIT) and Jennifer Stößer (prevention consultant at the Techniker Krankenkasse, a German health insurance) for their support.

Conflict of interest disclosure

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement and data deposition

The data of this study are available on request to the corresponding author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the the Techniker Krankenkasse (a German health insurance) and the Allgemeiner Deutscher Hochschulsportverband (the German association for sports at universities).