Physical Activity Could Significantly Reduce the Risk

¶ … physical activity could significantly reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease of individuals. The transtheoretical model believes that for change to be most effective it has to be introduced in a number of changes and that all changes must be passed through for change to occur. In 1997, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario developed a marketing resource / program where they incorporated the transtheoretical model. Their resource, called Small Steps, was a self-help kit to help people move through the required stages.

Their challenges were: firstly targeting the kit to those in the appropriate stages of change and secondly, finding means of evaluating the program. Finally, the organization, having a limited budget, had to do this in a cost-reductive manner. During February and March 1998, residents of two cities in Southern Ontario were contacted via a door-to-door campaign, advertisements, events, radio announcements, and flyers in grocery bags. Residents in two other southern Ontario cities were subsequently contacted via media but without door-to door encounters and flyers.

Applicants for a kit called a toll-free number where the interviewer determined whether callers were interested in improving their physical activity habits. Classification of stage was also done according to response of caller to question about when he/she was prepared to start participating in physical activity. The questions determined whether callers were in the 'preparation' or 'action' stages and therefore applicable for kits. Callers were also asked to rate on a scale of 1 to 5 their belief that.

They would stick to the program despite challenges, as well as to answer other questions that involved medical issues. Callers who agreed to participate in the study and receive follow-up call received kit. The members of the control group received a placebo package that were not stage specific but consisted of advice. 219 participants were in each group. The point that authors gained from this study was the ingenuity with which Small Steps managed to combine market segmentation and program evaluation into health-promotion distribution channels with little cost.

The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario found ingenious ways to work around the general costly standard surveying techniques and to target their desired market sample. b. Critique Whilst acknowledging that the sample population was credibly large enough for such a survey, I found other aspects of the study problematic. Firstly, some people could have been too shy to call the program, thereby missing out on the opportunity. Secondly, some callers may have deliberately slanted their questions in a way so as to receive the kit.

The intentions of the questions are clear enough. Not all callers may have been honest, and interviewers were not focused on following up authenticity of response. People too often understate or overate their actions and intentions, with many lacking appropriate self-knowledge as to motivation. Some therefore could have under-rated or over-rated their responses leading researchers to incorrect conclusions regarding their 'preparation' or 'activity' stage. Again, the interviewer's manner of questioning could.