Community Physical Activity Program: time requirements and delivery

Abstract

The implementation dimension of RE-AIM evaluates the fidelity to treatment protocol and its related costs. In this study, an evidence-based, community-wide physical activity and fruit/vegetable consumption program was implemented by health educators within the Cooperative Extension System. The purpose of this study was to determine 1) the extent to which health educators adhere to underlying program principles and 2) the time required to plan, recruit, and deliver the intervention. Sixteen agents (100.0%) who delivered the program completed a survey that included items on both time requirements and treatment protocol. When analyzed, it was found that health educators adhered to the three underlying principles of the program; as seen by delivering to groups (100.0%), collecting group goal attainment (80.1%, SD+ .08%), and providing feedback (72.5%, SD+ .16%) over the 8 week study. However, as the program reached the end (weeks 6-8), there was a significant (p <.05) decline in providing feedback to teams. The health educators spent the most time on collecting team miles (12.4 SD+18.8 hours), entering participant information (9.47 SD+19.8 hours), communicating with participants (9.32 SD+13.7 hours), and developing local materials for newsletters (5.7  SD+3.79 hours). The program components that health educators spent the least amount of time on were preparing captains packets (.909 SD+ 2.7 hours), leading activities (2.54 SD+7.17 hours), and following up with captains (3.09 SD+2.81 hours). This study indicates that the time requirements for Fit Extension fit well within the expectations of health educators. Future research is needed to compare implementation fidelity and structures that may promote program sustainability.