Community activity intervention reduced sitting time and improved population physical activity levels

TL;DR

A community-based game reduced sitting time and increased physical activity among children and adults in a short-term study.

Contribution

The study demonstrates the effectiveness of gamification in promoting physical activity and reducing sedentary behavior in real-world settings.

Findings

Participants reported reduced sitting time and increased wellbeing after the intervention.

The percentage of inactive children and adults decreased following the gamified activity.

Life satisfaction improved among adult participants.

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of the Beat the Street intervention; a gamification intervention to promote physical activity, reduce sitting time and improve wellbeing, among residents of Chelmsford and South Woodham Ferrers.

Pre-post experimental design of the Beat the Street Intervention. Beat the Street gamifies neighbourhoods, incentivising the community to actively travel, collecting virtual points at sensors on selected lamp posts called ‘Beat Boxes’ advertised on maps and phone applications. Participants were asked to complete a baseline questionnaire after registering, and before the six-week “game phase” of the intervention. A follow-up questionnaire was then completed at the end of the intervention. Mean differences were calculated to provide interpretations of differences. Within-subjects differences for all measures were assessed by Wilcoxon Signed Rank separately for children and adults, followed by each demographic grouping. Significance for all analyses was set at p < 0.05.

Nine hundred fifteen (n = 313 children) participants reported sitting time and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity both pre- and post-intervention. For both children and adults overall, there was an increase in reported wellbeing and a reduction in reported sitting time daily and sitting time week, while life satisfaction increased for adults overall. Additionally, the percentage of participants classed as inactive decreased for both children and adults.

The present findings suggest that the Beat the Street intervention reduced sitting time and increased physical activity among both children and adults in the short term. Further research is needed to assess the long-term impacts and explore objective measures of sitting time to better understand sustained engagement and outcomes.

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