Encouraging walking while going or coming from work is one significant strategy to enhance physical exercise among adults. In England, many adults do not engage in enough physical activity to improve their health (Adams et al., 2017). Thus, encouraging these people to participate in physical activity can significantly improve their health and reduce the burden and prevalence of chronic diseases. The government advocates for the walking policy, but there is a need to recognize approaches that can be employed on a larger scale in the real-world environment, have an extensive reach, and succeed in maintaining and increasing the physical exercise levels of the population.
Indeed, a workplace is an environment where one can reach a large group of adults with strategies for encouraging physical activity and improving health. This is because about 74.6% of adult people in England are employed. Also, most of these workers are in inactive jobs and spend most of their time seated. Further, about 63% to 67% of these employed people use cars to travel to workplaces daily (Adams et al., 2017). As a result, using the work setting to deliver interventions endorsing physical activity can offer the potential for enhancing the levels of physical activity.
Notably, walking is ideal for adults because it does not require special equipment or skills. Walking can be done for transport, incidental, or recreational purposes and can be conducted in various environments like the workplace. Workplace intervention can contribute significantly to increasing walking. Therefore, walking during work hours and walking to and from the job has been recommended as a significant strategy to promote physical activity levels.
In the United States and many other places across the world, obesity or overweight is rampant among the adult population. To address the increased obesity and overweight, the MOVE! This weight management program has been disseminated in the medical centers for veterans. Notably, obesity and overweight are linked to substantial mortality and morbidity and increased medical costs for payers, healthcare systems, and patients. Thus, veterans need effective weight management programs to help curb obesity and being overweight. MOVE! was designed as a patient-centered, multi-tiered set of treatment options and tools based on documented strategies for obesity management. Distribution of the MOVE! Program for weight management in networks of 872 community-based outpatient health clinics and 155 medical centers made this the most comprehensive and largest program for weight management in the United States (Damschroder, Reardon & Lowery, 2020). Many veterans suffering from chronic health conditions associated with obesity, such as hyperlipidemia, enrolled in the program.
Further, promoting healthy behaviors and preventing diseases are inseparably associated with cultural understandings of well-being and health, kinship and relational structures, and public awareness of behavior change, health literacy, and health (Kim, Singhal & Kreps, 2013). Health communication practice and scholarship can strategically and substantially play a role in people living happier, healthier, and safer lives. Thus, a strategy informed by deep cultural considerations and research can contribute to closing the gap between practice and knowledge for healthy behaviors. Indeed, creating strategies that align with one’s culture encourages adherence to the stipulated strategies and helps create a sense of ownership. Ultimately, this leads to improved health outcomes among the people.
References
Adams, E. J., Chalkley, A. E., Esliger, D. W., & Sherar, L. B. (2017). Evaluation of the implementation of a whole-workplace walking program using the RE-AIM framework. BMC Public Health, 17(1), 1-18.
Damschroder, L. J., Reardon, C. M., & Lowery, J. C. (2020). The consolidated framework for implementation research (CFIR). In Handbook on implementation science (pp. 88-113). Edward Elgar Publishing.
Kim, B., Singhal, A., & Kreps, G. L. (Eds.). (2013). Health communication: Strategies for developing global health programs. Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers.
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