Beat the Street: A Pilot Evaluation of a Community-Wide Gamification-Based Physical Activity Intervention

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Author
Harris, Marc Ashley
Date
2018-06-01Acceptance date
2018-02-01
Type
Article
Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Objective: There is a plethora of published research reporting the wealth and breadth of biopsychosocial benefits of physical activity; however, a recent Cochrane systematic review concluded insufficient evidence for current population level physical activity interventions, citing scalability as a major contributory factor, with many of the interventions failing to reach a substantial proportion of the community. The current study aimed to conduct a pilot evaluation of a technology-enabled, gamification-based intervention called Beat the Street and sought to examine the impact of the Beat the Street intervention on self-reported physical activity.
Methods: In total, n = 329 people completed the International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form (I-PAQ-SF) in full at baseline (before the intervention) and follow-up (immediately following the 7-week intervention).
Results: Overall, participants increased their weekly walking by +180 minutes per week (P < 0.001) and their weekly physical activity by +335 minutes per week (P < 0001). Vigorous activity increased by +48 minutes per week (P = 0.004) and moderate activity increased by +60 minutes per week (P < 0.001).
Conclusion: The findings provide preliminary evidence that the Beat the Street intervention may be a promising approach to increasing physical activity at a community-wide level and warrants further investigation
Journal/conference proceeding
Games for Health Journal;
Citation
Ashley, M.H. (2018) 'Beat the Street: A Pilot Evaluation of a Community-Wide Gamification-Based Physical Activity Intervention', Games for Health Journal, 7(3)
Description
Article published in Games for Health Journal available at https://doi.org/10.1089/g4h.2017.0179
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- Sport Research Groups [1083]
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