Socio-Ecological Natural Experiment with Randomized Controlled Trial to Promote Active Commuting to Work: Process Evaluation, Behavioral Impacts, and Changes in the Use and Quality of Walking and Cycling Paths

Minna Aittasalo, Johanna Tiilikainen, Kari Tokola, Jaana Suni, Harri Sievänen, Henri Vähä-Ypyä, Tommi Vasankari, Timo Seimelä, Pasi Metsäpuro, Charlie Foster and Sylvia Titze
Additional contact information
Minna Aittasalo: UKK Institute for Health Promotion Research, P.O. Box 30, 33501 Tampere, Finland
Johanna Tiilikainen: UKK Institute for Health Promotion Research, P.O. Box 30, 33501 Tampere, Finland
Kari Tokola: UKK Institute for Health Promotion Research, P.O. Box 30, 33501 Tampere, Finland
Jaana Suni: UKK Institute for Health Promotion Research, P.O. Box 30, 33501 Tampere, Finland
Harri Sievänen: UKK Institute for Health Promotion Research, P.O. Box 30, 33501 Tampere, Finland
Henri Vähä-Ypyä: UKK Institute for Health Promotion Research, P.O. Box 30, 33501 Tampere, Finland
Tommi Vasankari: UKK Institute for Health Promotion Research, P.O. Box 30, 33501 Tampere, Finland
Timo Seimelä: Department of Transport and Streets, City of Tampere, Frenckellinaukio 2, PL 487, 33101 Tampere, Finland
Pasi Metsäpuro: Department of Mobility and Transport, WSP Finland Ltd., Kelloportinkatu 1 D, 33100 Tampere, Finland
Charlie Foster: Centre for Exercise Nutrition and Health Sciences, School for Policy Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences and Law, University of Bristol, 8 Priory Road, Bristol BS81TZ, UK
Sylvia Titze: Institute of Sport Science, University of Graz, Mozartgasse 14, 8010 Graz, Austria

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 9, 1-18

Abstract: Active commuting to work (ACW) has beneficial effects on health, traffic, and climate. However, more robust evidence is needed on how to promote ACW. This paper reports the findings of a multilevel natural experiment with a randomized controlled trial in 16 Finnish workplaces. In Phase 1, 11 workplaces (1823 employees) from Area 1 were exposed to environmental improvements in walking and cycling paths. In Phase 2, five more workplaces (826 employees) were recruited from Area 2 and all workplaces were randomized into experimental group (EXP) promoting ACW with social and behavioral strategies and comparison group (COM) participating only in data collection. Process and impact evaluation with questionnaires, travel diaries, accelerometers, traffic calculations, and auditing were conducted. Statistics included Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test, Mann-Whitney U -test, and after-before differences with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). After Phase 1, positive change was seen in the self-reported number of days, which the employees intended to cycle part of their journey to work in the following week ( p = 0.001). After Phase 2, intervention effect was observed in the proportion of employees, who reported willingness to increase walking (8.7%; 95% CI 1.8 to 15.6) and cycling (5.5%; 2.2 to 8.8) and opportunity to cycle part of their journey to work (5.9%; 2.1 to 9.7). To conclude, the intervention facilitated employees’ motivation for ACW, which is the first step towards behavior change.

Keywords: active travel; workplace; natural experiment; multilevel; intervention (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/9/1661/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/9/1661/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:9:p:1661-:d:230676

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().