Authors : Keivan Shabani Moghaddam, Abolfazl Farahani and Mehdi Shahbazi
Abstract: Taking the stairs instead of escalators or elevators is a free and beneficial physical activity that can be done by most people in most places including malls, worksites, libraries and other such facilities. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of using health-promoting posters to encourage people to use stair instead of escalators in the five underground metro stations in Tehran, Iran. The posters were placed in the point-of-choice between the stairs and ascending escalators at the eye level. The number of people who selected stairs or ascending escalators recorded. Accounts were done at the same time, on the same weekday and 5 consecutive weeks. Observations took place in five stages including baseline, first intervention, first post-intervention, second intervention and second post-intervention. During the study in all five stations, the total number of 48635 choices between the stairs and the ascending escalator were counted. There were significant increase in stair use between baseline and the first intervention phase (from 4.5-19.3%) and between the first post-intervention and the second intervention phases (from 6.6-22.8%) when the posters were introduced for the first and the Second times. In addition, there were significant decrease between the first intervention and the first post-intervention phases (19.3-6.6%) and between the second intervention and the second post-intervention phases (from 22.8-8.7%) when the posters were removed for the first and the second times. However, the level of stair use after the second post-intervention phase significantly exceeded the baseline level (8.7 vs. 4.5%). The results of this study showed that using posters significantly increased the percentage of stair users. Based on these results, it suggests that public health promoters use simple and low-cost tools such as posters to promote lifestyle based health-enhancing physical activity by encouraging individuals to opt stairs.
Keivan Shabani Moghaddam, Abolfazl Farahani and Mehdi Shahbazi, 2011. Can Health-Promoting Posters Increase Stair Climbing Instead of Using Escalators?. The Social Sciences, 6: 507-512.