Walk the Walk: A public school intervention for worksite wellness

Over the last 20 years worksite wellness initiatives, those programs that take an individual or an organization to a higher level of health, have been implemented in large businesses, various industries and in public settings to improve overall health of employees and increase productivity. Changing lifestyle habits can be difficult to accomplish and bringing wellness activities to the workplace eliminates barriers to information that employees can use to improve their health. In the spring of 2009, the Walk the Walk Program, an 8 week walking and blood pressure self-monitoring program, was initiated in a Buffalo Public High School. The goal of the program was to increase physical activity and encourage weekly blood pressure self monitoring for participants. Twenty five participants from the school completed the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) at the beginning and end of the program to assess physical activity data. The Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change (TTM) was the framework used in the Walk the Walk program. The TTM postulates that behavior change is a dynamic process involving movement through a sequence of discrete, qualitative distinct stages. Change scores were analyzed from the TTM. One of the program's goals was to move participants along these phases of change toward behavioral action. All of the areas of change improved as a result of this program. In addition, the IPAQ was used to assess various types of physical activity. Almost all of the areas of physical activity evaluated increased during the intervention.