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Evaluating the uptake of Canada’s new physical activity and sedentary behavior guidelines on service organizations’ websites

  • Original research
  • Published:
Translational Behavioral Medicine

ABSTRACT

New evidence-based physical activity and sedentary behavior guidelines for Canadians were launched in 2011. As a consequence, service organizations that promote physical activity directly to the public needed to change their promotion materials to reflect the new guidelines. Little is known about the rate at which service organizations adopt and integrate new evidence-based guidelines and determinants of guideline adoption. In this natural observational study, we evaluated the rate of online adoption of the new guidelines among key service organizations that promote physical activity and examined participation in a booster webinar as a supplemental dissemination strategy. One hundred fifty nine service organization websites were coded by one of six raters prior to the release of the new guidelines as well as at 3, 6, and 9 months after the release. Online adoption of the guidelines increased during the coding period with 51 % of organizations posting the guidelines or related information on their websites. Organizations’ engagement in a webinar was associated with their adoption of the guidelines. The release of new Canadian Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines led to increased guideline adoption on service organizations’ websites. However, adoption was not universal. In order for the uptake of the new guidelines to be successful, further efforts need to be taken to ensure that service organizations present physical activity guidelines on their websites. Comprehensive, active dissemination strategies tailored to address organizational barriers are needed to ensure online guideline adoption.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would thank Mary Duggan for her assistance with this project as well as Erin Berenbaum, Wei Cao, Alex Hatchell, Jocelyn Jarvis, Lauren McNicol and Christine Podzyhun for coding websites. This research was supported the Canada Research Chair (CIHR) program (AEL), and a CIHR Canada Graduate Scholarship (HLG).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Queen’s University, 28 Division St., Kingston, Ontario, Canada, K7L 3N6

    Heather L Gainforth MSc, BScKin & Amy E Latimer-Cheung PhD

  2. University of Alberta, E4-88 Van Vliet Centre, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6G 2H9

    Tanya Berry PhD & John C Spence PhD

  3. University of Toronto, 55 Harbord St., Rm # 2080, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 2W6

    Guy Faulkner PhD

  4. University of Victoria, PO Box 3010 STN CSC, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, V8W 3N4

    Ryan E Rhodes PhD

  5. CHEO Research Institute, 401 Smyth Road, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1H 8L1

    Mark S Tremblay PhD

  6. University of Ottawa, 451 Smyth Road, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1H 8M5

    Mark S Tremblay PhD

Authors
  1. Heather L Gainforth MSc, BScKin
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  2. Tanya Berry PhD
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  3. Guy Faulkner PhD
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  4. Ryan E Rhodes PhD
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  5. John C Spence PhD
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  6. Mark S Tremblay PhD
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  7. Amy E Latimer-Cheung PhD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Heather L Gainforth MSc, BScKin.

Additional information

Implications

Practice: Extensive, tailored active dissemination strategies are recommended for enhancing adoption of physical activity and sedentary behavior guidelines among service organizations.

Policy: Mechanisms for funding the development of guidelines and their dissemination are needed.

Research: Our project provides other researchers methodology for evaluating the national uptake of a research innovation (e.g., policies and guidelines) at an organizational level.

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Gainforth, H.L., Berry, T., Faulkner, G. et al. Evaluating the uptake of Canada’s new physical activity and sedentary behavior guidelines on service organizations’ websites. Behav. Med. Pract. Policy Res. 3, 172–179 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13142-012-0190-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13142-012-0190-z

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