Evaluation of Walk Across Texas! - a web-based community physical activity program

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Behavioral Science
• Web-based Interventions

Background:

• Chronic diseases necessitate scalable interventions for behavior change, such as increasing physical activity (PA).
• Web- and community-based programs offer a novel approach to target PA behaviors in large populations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To preliminarily evaluate the effectiveness of an established, team-centered, web-based community PA program in Texas.
• To assess changes in self-reported physical activity and leisure-time sitting among adult participants.

Main Methods:

• The eight-week Walk Across Texas! (WAT!) program utilized a web-based platform to encourage regular PA.
• 11,116 adult participants tracked self-reported PA (miles/week, days/week) and leisure-time sitting (hours/day).
• Statistical analyses included paired-sample t-tests and repeated measures ANOVA to examine changes in PA.

Main Results:

• All measured PA variables showed statistically significant improvements (p < .001).
• Mean increase in PA was 4.89 miles/week, with a 0.63 days/week increase in PA and a decrease of 0.87 hours/day in sitting time.
• Inactive and low-active participants demonstrated significant increases in weekly mileage, suggesting program efficacy across activity levels.

Conclusions:

• The Walk Across Texas! (WAT!) program shows initial support for increasing and maintaining moderate PA levels over eight weeks.
• The intervention appears effective even for individuals with low baseline physical activity.
• Future research can explore PA enhancement strategies within team-centered, web-based program designs.