Acciones motivacionales para promover actividad física en la comunidad que asiste a un Hospital Universitario / Taking action for promoting physical activity in the community attending a university hospital

RESUMEN

Introducción: el sedentarismo ha llegado para quedarse. Cualquier tipo de acción para combatirlo será de gran utilidad; solo bastará con conocer su eficacia y con que la gente se adhiera. Métodos: se ha realizado un estudio cuasi experimental antes-después no controlado, con 3 intervenciones aditivas sobre la población que concurre al Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires (Hospital Universitario). Se comparó la proporción de personas que usaban la escalera mecánica con aquellas que subían por la escalera convencional, antes y después de las siguientes intervenciones con autoadhesivos que anunciaban las calorías perdidas al subir cada escalón, luego se agregaron carteles acerca del beneficio de hacer actividad física y, por último, se entregaron folletos sobre los beneficios de hacer actividad física. Resultados: se realizaron 39 967 observaciones. Cada intervención significó un aumento de personas que subían por la escalera convencional (P < 0,001). Con la intervención de los autoadhesivos se produjo un incremento del 2,39% frente al basal (11,07% - 8,68%, p=0,001) de personas que subieron por la escalera convencional. La intervención autoadhesivos + cartel aumentó 2,33% (13,4% -11,07%, p=0,001) y la intervención autoadhesivos + cartel + folletos produjo un aumento del 1,09% (14,49%-13,4%, p=0,03). Interpretación en este estudio se midió cuál era el beneficio de las intervenciones para promover que más gente utilizara la escalera convencional; cada una de ellas proveyó una mayor cantidad de personas que, adoptando una actitud más activa, subieron por la escalera convencional. Medidas sencillas y económicas muestran un gran cambio en promover la actividad física. (AU)

ABSTRACT

Background: The sedentary lifestyle has become predominant in our society. Any measures taken to fight it are useful, it's just necessary to know their effectiveness and get people to stick with them. Methods: we performed a quasi-experimental pre-post study testing three persistent interventions on the population that attends a university hospital. Its main entrance allows the access to different areas through stairs, escalators or an elevator. We took baseline data on the number of people who took the escalator or the stairs. Then we performed progressive interventions designed to promote the use of the stairs. First, we used stickers placed on in each step that announced the amount of calories burned per step climbed. Then, we placed banners which informed the benefits of physical activity. Lastly, brochures were handed out with a list of benefits of doing physical activity. We quantified the number of people taking the stairs or the escalator with each intervention. Results: in eight weeks 39·967 observations were performed. Each intervention found an increase in the number of people that decided to take the stairs. At baseline, 880 people used the escalator and 9264 people took the stairs. With the first intervention, i.e. the use of stickers on the steps, there was an increase of 2·39% in the number of people that took the stairs compared to baseline data (from 8·68% to 11·07%, p=0.001). With the second intervention, i.e. stickers plus physical activity promotion banners, there was an additional increase of 2·33% (from 11·07% to 13·40%, p=0.001) in the proportion of people taking the stairs. Finally, the intervention of stickers in addition to the banners and brochures about benefits of physical activity, was associated with an increase of 1·09% (from 13·40% to 14·49%, p=0.03). Discussion: in this study we aimed to measure the benefits of multiple interventions to promote physical activity in a university hospital setting. Each intervention was associated with a larger number of people that decided to take the stairs instead of taking the escalator or the elevator. The interventions were simple, cheap and very effective to promote change independently from gender, age or health conditions. (AU)