Active 10 – A new approach to increase physical activity in inactive people in England

Abstract

Public health physical activity (PA) guidelines are failing to increase levels of population PA, requiring a new approach. A national integrated marketing campaign was developed based on published literature and ethnographic research to get inactive lower socioeconomic 40-60year olds to walk briskly for bouts of 10 or more minutes per day and move towards recommended levels of PA. National and local communications campaigns and partnerships promoted key messages and directed people to a free mobile phone app that provided the user with time, intensity and periodicity of walking, and included goal setting and encouragement to support behaviour change. Campaigns in the summers of 2017 and 2018 achieved around 500,000 downloads of the mobile phone app, with evaluation suggesting increases in brand and app awareness, and those taking action. Active 10 is a promising example of a physical activity promotion campaign based on evidence-based messages tailored for a target audience to change social norms rather than guidelines, an approach recognised as an effective population intervention for increasing walking.

Responsiveness of the single item measure to detect change in physical activity

“…The total time spent in MVPA each day was calculated regardless of bout duration (MVPA-total) and also with respect to MVPA per day in sustained bouts of 10 minutes or more (MVPA-bouts). The primary rationale for inclusion of bouted activity as a method for analysing accelerometer data relates the potential utility of the SIM for examining PA change in community settings where a focus is often on increasing physical activity in bouts of 10 or more minutes (such as the active 10 program in the UK [42]and participation in other organised sport-based activities).…”

The use of the behaviour change wheel in the development of ParticipACTION’s physical activity app

“…From the list of 93 possible BCTs ( Michie et al, 2013 ), research staff selected the techniques deemed to be most effective and feasible in eliciting the desired behaviour change of helping adults move more. The list was created by reviewing the evidence on effective techniques for increasing adults’ physical activity levels ( Brannan et al, 2019 , Keyworth et al, 2020 , McKay et al, 2019a , McKay et al, 2019b ), and mapping the BCTs on to the intervention functions.…”

Österreichische Bewegungsempfehlungen für Erwachsene und ältere Erwachsene ohne und mit Körper-, Sinnes- oder Mentalbehinderung sowie für Menschen mit chronischen Erkrankungen

“…Eine aus Public Health Sicht wichtige Botschaft ist zu Beginn die Aufforderung an körperlich inaktive Personen. Als körperlich inaktiv werden Personen bezeichnet, die keinerlei -manchmal auch definiert als weniger als 30 Minuten -Bewegung pro Woche mit mittlerer Intensität ausüben [3,9]. In den Bewegungsempfehlungen heißt es: "Vor allem der Wechsel von "körperlich inaktiv" zu "ein wenig körperlich aktiv" ist ein wichtiger erster Schritt".…”