A self-liberation intervention using a pedometer to encourage physical activity among sedentary nursing staff: A randomized controlled trial

OBJECTIVE: Nurses make up the majority of the workforce in any healthcare system. Physical inactivity due to heavy workloads has been widely reported among nurses. This study aimed to examine whether a self-liberation intervention could help nurses increase their physical activity levels that would result in other health benefits. METHODS: A two-armed randomized controlled trial was implemented among 40 nurses (20 per arm). The control arm received information about the benefits of physical activity, but with no intervention. The intervention arm received the same information and were given pedometers for 12 weeks to record their daily steps while also receiving weekly reminders. Measurements were taken for anthropometric data, self-reported physical activity, exercise stage-of-change, exercise self-efficacy, and pedometer steps (intervention arm only). All statistical analyses were two-sided, with p ⩽ 0.05. RESULTS: The respondents’ mean age was 47.9 ± 7.02 years with 90% being female. After the intervention, the intervention arm achieved a higher self-efficacy score (4.60 ± 1.75 to 5.63 ± 2.48) while a decline was observed in the control arm (5.02 ± 2.08 to 4.50 ± 1.90). At baseline, 16.7% (n = 3) of the control arm and 27.8% (n = 5) of the intervention arm were classified as moderately physically active (McNemar’s test = 1.20, p = 0.549). After 12 weeks, this proportion increased to 27.7% (n = 5) in the control arm and 50.0% (n = 9) in the intervention arm (McNemar’s test = 5.00, p = 0.172). For the intervention arm, mean daily step counts rose from 8889 ± 579.84 at week 1 to 9930 ± 986.52 at week 12 and reached the level of statistical significance (p < 0.01). Waist circumference of the intervention arm decreased significantly more than that of the control group (p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: The self-liberation intervention using a pedometer had positive effects on assisting sedentary nursing staff to progress through the stages of health behavior change and on their exercise self-efficacy, which could further help increase their exercise adherence and overall physical and mental wellbeing.