MoveU? Assessing a Social Marketing Campaign to Promote Physical Activity.

OBJECTIVE: MoveU is a social marketing initiative aimed at increasing moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) among undergraduate students. Using the Hierarchy of Effects model (HOEM), this study identified awareness of MoveU and examined associations between awareness, outcome expectations, self-efficacy, intentions, and MVPA. PARTICIPANTS: Students (N = 2,784) from a Canadian university in March 2013. METHODS: A secondary analysis of the National College Health Assessment-II survey and measures specific to the MoveU campaign. The main associations were examined in a path analysis. RESULTS: MoveU awareness (36.4%) was lower than other well-established university health campaigns. Younger students, females, and individuals living on campus were more likely to be aware of MoveU. The HOEM was supported, and improvements in model fit were evident, with additional direct relationships between outcome expectancy and intention, and between self-efficacy and MVPA. CONCLUSIONS: The intended population was aware of the campaign. The HOEM was useful in the development and evaluation of the MoveU campaign. Longitudinal studies are needed to further test the efficacy of the HOEM in the social marketing of physical activity.

A model of knowledge translation in health: the Active Healthy Kids Canada Report Card on physical activity for children and youth.

The health of Canadian children and youth has deteriorated in the past few decades and physical inactivity is a powerful contributor. Active Healthy Kids Canada (AHKC; www.activehealthykids.ca) is a national not-for-profit organization with a mission to inspire the nation to engage all children and youth in physical activity by providing expertise and direction to policy makers and the public on how to increase and effectively allocate resources and attention toward physical activity for Canadian children and youth. Annually, for the past 7 years, the AHKC Report Card has consolidated and translated research knowledge to drive social action for policy change relating to physical activity among children and youth. Original published articles and key surveillance data from national and regional surveys are reviewed. A group of content experts from across Canada meet semiannually to review the evidence and assign letter grades. The AHKC Report Card has played a key role in informing discussions that have led to action on physical inactivity in Canada. Further evidence of the Report Card's influence is in the replication of the model in several other jurisdictions, including Saskatchewan and Ontario, Canada; Louisiana, United States; South Africa; Mexico; and Kenya.

The Long Live Kids campaign: awareness of campaign messages.

Media interventions are one strategy used to promote physical activity, but little is known about their effectiveness with children. As part of a larger evaluation, the purpose of this study was to assess the short-term effect of a private industry sponsored media literacy campaign, Long Live Kids, aimed at children in Canada. Specifically, we investigated children's awareness of the campaign and its correlates. Using a cohort design, a national sample (N = 331, male = 171; mean age = 10.81, SD = 0.99) completed a telephone survey two weeks prior to the campaign release, and again 1 year later. Only 3% of the children were able to recall the Long Live Kids campaign unprompted and 57% had prompted recall. Logistic regression found family income (Wald χ(2) = 11.06, p < .05), and free-time physical activity (Wald χ(2) = 5.67, p < .01) significantly predicted campaign awareness. Active children (≥3 days/week) were twice as likely to have recalled the campaign compared with inactive children (<3 days/week), whereas children living in high-income households (>$60,000/yr) were between 3.5 to 5 times more likely to have campaign recall compared with children living in a low-income households (<$20,000/yr). These findings suggest that media campaigns developed by industry may have a role in promoting physical activity to children although our findings identified a knowledge gap between children living in high- and low-income households. Future research needs to examine how children become aware of such media campaigns and how this mediated information is being used by children.