Effects of Peer-Delivered Practice Intervention with Fostering Walking Leaders for Participation in Healthy Walking Activities and Awareness of the Community Walking Environment.

Background: A standardized walking instructor training program and a peer-delivered practice intervention were provided to the residents of a local community to investigate changes in their awareness of appropriate walking activities and community walking environments.

Methods: A quasi-experimental design with a pretest-posttest design was used. Among the residents of the Hanbando-myeon, Yeongwol-gun, State of Gangwon, 303 men (64.5±13.2 years) and 329 women (64.7±13.7 years) participated in the evaluation before and after the peer-delivered intervention. A 96-hour training course for over 15 weeks was provided for first-level walking instructors of the Korea Walking Federation, in which 13 community members completed the training and obtained their qualifications. Additionally, a peer-delivered walking activity intervention led by a walking leader was performed three times a week for 72 weeks. To survey walking preferences and awareness of the walking environment, a questionnaire was administered before and 1 year after the training course. McNemar's test and paired t-test were employed to evaluate the effects of fostering walking leaders in the community.

Results: Significant improvements were found in the average number of steps per day (t = 7.54, p < 0.001) and awareness of the community walking environment (t = 2.26, p = 0.025).

Conclusion: Health promotion activities centered on community members can be an effective strategy for maintaining positive sustainability.