Taking sound steps: a community partners to promote walking among older adults

Parks & Recreation, July, 2004 by Allen Cheadle, Trevor Gregg, Karen Lewis, Sheryl Schwartz, Julie Walwick

Physical activity provides significant health benefits to older adults, and walking is by far the most accessible and popular form of activity. Promoting walking can be a challenge, however, and effective programs can require the collaboration of multiple, diverse partners. Sound Steps, a walking program for more than 500 older adults implemented in the summer of 2003 through Seattle Parks and Recreation, Wash., illustrates the benefits of park and recreation departments working in collaboration with community partners.

The Healthy Aging Partnership (HAP), a well-established coalition of 35 Seattle area not-for-profit and public organizations dedicated to the health and well-being of older adults, had long targeted promotion of physical activity as a goal. However, its efforts had primarily focused on encouraging such activity through social marketing and seminars for senior-care professionals, rather than implementing actual programs. Spurred by interest from AARP, one of HAP's member organizations, the partnership decided to make Sound Steps its first venture into developing and implementing a community-based program for older adults.

Engaging Seattle Parks and Recreation as a key partner in implementing Sound Steps was a natural given its mission and structure. The Senior Adult Program of Seattle Parks and Recreation is dedicated to providing a wide range of activities for Seattle's older residents. HAP launched Sound Steps through the Senior Adult Program, working with staff at six geographically diverse community centers throughout the city. The joint effort boosted physical activity among older adults, as well as generating more awareness of other Seattle Parks and Recreation programs among the 50-plus population.

Sound Steps provided options for the walkers. Participants could walk on their own, walk with organized groups from the local community center, and/or walk with friends, neighbors or other Sound Steppers outside of the organized walks. Weekly walks were arranged at each of the sites, led either by a volunteer or by the Seattle Parks and Recreation Senior Adult Program staff. At registration, participants were supplied with monthly walking logs to track how long they walked each day.

Incentives were given to walkers, such as a pedometer, a neck wallet with a name tag, a brochure about the benefits of walking and a variety of other items. Each month, participants were given an additional gift, such as a hand exerciser or first aid kit, when they turned in their completed monthly walking logs.

Benefits from Sound Steps

What was the impact of Sound Steps? Another HAP partner, University of Washington Health Promotion Research Center (UW-HPRC), evaluated the effectiveness of Sound Steps by collecting both quantitative and qualitative information from participants, volunteers and Seattle Parks and Recreation staff. UW-HPRC worked with an evaluation team comprised of representatives from several of the partnering organizations to develop a questionnaire used at registration to collect baseline information and monthly walking logs to assess change in the level of walking over the summer. UWHPRC also conducted six focus groups of walkers from each of the community centers and interviewed 53 people including parks and recreation staff, volunteers, walkers who did not participate in the organized walks and people who had left Sound Steps. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected for the program evaluation point of increased walking, which was the primary goal of the program. Below are other ways that Sound Steps made a difference in participants' lives.

* Increased physical activity. A significant number of people joined Sound Steps because they needed a jump start to return to a routine of walking and being physically active after having been inactive for a number of years. "I just knew I would need to have some motivation to start walking again, because I knew I wasn't going to do it on my own," says a participant. Many people mentioned that the scheduled walking routine motivated them to be active. One man said, "I've been trying to entice my wife to walk with me, but 15 years ago, she wouldn't walk. Since we came down here, joined this group, she started walking. Now she gets me out. Now she enjoys it."

Walkers were also motivated by filling out their walking logs. Simply having the visual reminder of how much they had walked helped to increase their activity level. "They (walking logs) made you get out and walk, especially on the days when there was nothing recorded. I would make sure I went out to the store or something."

The monthly walking logs did not accurately show how much participants truly walked over the summer, since many regular walkers reported that they did not turn them in or fill them out completely. However, the results of the logs that were received did show an increase in activity as compared to what participants reported at registration. Of those who indicated at registration that they had not walked at all, 41 percent turned in at least one or more walking logs indicating that they had become active walkers. It is very likely that this percentage is higher given that many people reported that they didn't turn in logs. Previous walkers showed a modest increase both in the amount they walked each day and in the number of times walked per week. The average minutes these participants walked per day increased from 30 to 39 minutes, and the average number of times they walked per week went from 3.75 to 4.19.