Recommendations for a Stair Wrap Intervention at UBC
Creators: name: Brodie, Bailey
name: Law, Angela
name: Repole, Giulia
name: Rudy, Merlena
name: Tani, Christina
Publisher: name: The University of British Columbia
Year: 2020

description: The purpose of our study was to investigate how the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) community perceives the implementation of a stair wrap intervention and to determine their motivations for stair usage. We want to use this information to provide a set of recommendation guidelines for a stair wrap intervention and ultimately improve future physical activity campaigns at UBC. To abide by our purpose, we evaluated the influences of stair wrap interventions on health behaviour choices and types of motivations involved when faced with a decision of taking the stairs or taking an elevator through a literature review process. The reviewed literature on this topic included highlighting the increasing issue of inactivity among students which needs to be addressed through health promotion strategies such as stair wraps to enhance overall physical activity levels and wellbeing across campus. Analysis of previous stair wrap intervention studies provided us with insight on how health benefits are perceived when put into words on a stair wrap to promote motivation and participation in physical activity bouts throughout the day. We also reviewed the aesthetic impact of stair wraps as a key factor in fostering an effective health promotion intervention. There is also attention given to the type of motivations that relate to influencing health behaviour choices and changes (Radtke &amp; Rackow, 2014). After gaining a background of knowledge through reviewing previous research on stair wraps, we decided to collect data from the students, staff and faculty of UBC by creating a survey. We used our research to create questions that provided us with insight on which types of motivation, prompts, and aesthetic appeal are most likely to influence the UBC population’s likeness to take the stairs rather than elevators. We promoted participation in our survey across campus by putting up recruitment flyers, emails and sharing via social media posts. We managed to recruit 99 diverse survey participants who have various roles on campus. Upon gathering the responses to our survey questions, we then compiled the results into a table where we were able to organize the data into themes regarding motivation and aesthetic appeal. From these themes, we were then able to develop recommendations that we think would be most effective in promoting physical activity participation for future stair wrap interventions that can be implemented on campus. Our recommendations include focusing on the type of motivation used, aesthetic appeal, and the stimulation of prompts by renewing them over time and keeping interest. By applying our recommendations, we hope that physical activity levels will increase by promoting stair use in everyday life and enhance overall student and staff wellbeing and health across campus. Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.”