Signage Interventions for Stair Climbing at Work: More than 700,000 Reasons for Caution

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Environmental Psychology
• Occupational Health

Background:

• Increased stair climbing is linked to reduced cardiovascular disease risk.
• Workplace signage interventions are a low-cost strategy to promote stair use.
• Previous studies show inconsistent effects of signage on stair climbing behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of workplace signage interventions for stair climbing.
• To assess the influence of pedestrian movement on stair use, independent of signage.
• To analyze pooled data from UK and Spanish workplaces, controlling for pedestrian traffic.

Main Methods:

• Automated counters measured stair and elevator usage at ground floors.
• Minute-by-minute and aggregated pedestrian traffic data were collected.
• Signage interventions previously shown to be successful were implemented.

Main Results:

• Intervention effects were observed more frequently for stair descent than stair climbing.
• Signage effects were of small magnitude compared to the influence of pedestrian movement.
• Failure to control for pedestrian movement significantly impacts estimates of signage effectiveness.

Conclusions:

• Pooled data provide limited evidence that workplace signage interventions effectively enhance population health through stair climbing.
• Pedestrian movement is a critical factor influencing stair use, overshadowing signage effects.
• Future research must control for pedestrian traffic to accurately assess signage intervention efficacy.