The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #36169

Bruce Leonard, MPH, CHES, AIM 2010, 809 Mill Bend Drive, Lawrenceville, GA 30044, 770-978-2289, aim2010@bellsouth.net

The Challenge is a team/incentive based physical activity work site intervention that was created, implemented and evaluated at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1996. In 1998 the National Coalition to Promote Physical Activity piloted the Challenge in 38 diverse work sites in 21 states. It was successfully implemented in 15 state health department sites, 14 corporate sites, 4 schools and 5 government agencies. Since then many of these sites have not only continued to implement the challenge, but many have diffused the challenge to their constituents. This panel will be comprised of presentations by the following organizations with their respective names for the Challenge: American Cancer Society (Active for Life), New York (Move for Life), Maine (March into May) and California (Take Action). The intervention components will then be examined through the theoretical context of the Political Economy of Health PEH model in order to determine why the intervention has succeeded in maintaining high participation, high goal completion and behavior change.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the theoretical components that have contributed to the diffusion of the "challenge".
• Identify the intervention design components that have contributed to the high participation rates experienced by challenge implementation.
• Identify the evaluation components of the "challenge" that have allowed scientific standards of data collection to permit comparisons and long term tracking.

Keywords: Worksite, Physical Activity

Related Web page: takechargechallenge.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.