THE Applied Research Brief Health Promoting Cof!Zmunity Design Does the Environment Moderate the Impact of a Mass Media Campaign to Promote Walking? Klaus Gebel, PhD; Adrian E. Bauman, PhD; Bill Reger-Nash, EdD; Kevin M. Leyden, PhD Abstract Purpose. To examine if a mass media campaign influenced walking differently in people in different physical environments. Design. Quasi-experimental study. Setting. Wheeling, West Virginia. · Participants. Random sample of adults age 50 to 65 years, response rate: 72.1 % ( n = 719 in intervention community, n = 753 in comparison community). Interoention. Mass ·media campaign. Measures. Self-reported measures were used in before and after telephone surveys for walking · and the physical environment. Measures included 11 environmental walkability items, from which two subscales (i.e., usable sidewalks/aesthetics and facilities) were extracted. Analysis. Multiple linear regression. Results. Overall, walking increased by 2. 7 minutes per week (standard deviation {SD] = 231.1, not significant [NS]). When confined to those insufficiently active at baseline (i.e., <30 minutes per day) the minutes walked increased by 92.1 minutes (SD = 152.9, p < .001). For the insufficiently active at baseline in the top half of the environmental factor of usable sidewalks, walking increased by 19 minutes more than in the bottom half (NS). For the factor of aesthetics and facilities, people in the more walkable environment increased walking by 87 minutes more than those in the bottom half (p < .001). Conclusion. In this community-wide physical activity, intervention changes in walking after the campaign were significantly moderated by some environmental attributes. This contributes to the limited evidence on the impact of the environment in enhancing community physical activity interventions. This finding needs to be replicated in other community interventions with greater environmental variation. (Am] Health Promot 2011;26[1]:45-48.) Key Words: Physical Activity, Walking, Neighborhood, Environment, Effect Modifiers, Social Marketing, Prevention Research. Manuscript format: research; Research purpose: modeling/relationship testing; Study design: quasi-experimental; Outcome measure: behavioral; Setting: local community; Health focus: fitness/ physical activity; Strategy: education, built environment; Target population age: adults; Target population circumstances: geographic location Klaus Gebel, PhD, and Adrian E. Bauman, PhD, are with the Cluster for Physical Activity and Health, Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney, New South Wales 2006 Australia. Bill Reger-Nash, EdD, is with the School of Medicine, Department of Community Medicine, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia. Kevin M. Leyden, PhD, is with the Institute for Public Affairs, Department of Political Science, West Virginia University, Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, Morgantown, West Virginia. Send reprint requests to Adrian E. Bauman, PhD, Cluster for Physical Activity and Health, Sydney School of Public Health, Level 2, Medical Foundation Building (K25), University of Sydney, New South Wales 2006 Australia; adrian.bauman@sydney.edu.au. This manuscript was sulnnitted November 4, 2008; revisions were requested December 29, 2009, and April 15, 2010; the manuscript was accepted for publication April 16, 2010. Copyright© 2011 by American journal of Health Promotion, Inc. 0890-1171/11/$5.00 + 0 DOl: 10.4278/ajhp.081104-ARB-269 American Journal of Health Promotion PURPOSE Over recent years, an increasing number of studies have examined the relationship between the physi- cal environment and physical activi- ty. However, most of this evidence is limited by the cross-sectional study designs used, with a noted need for more longitudinal research to in- form the evidence base. 1 • 2 If re- search demonstrates that the physi- cal or built environment modifies the effect of physical activity inter- ventions, then this would strengthen the need to create supportive envi- ronments to enhance physical activ- ity interventions. This would con- tribute to the evidence base that supports the importance of the physical environment for promoting physical activity. We are aware of only one other study that specifically examined if a commu- nity-based intervention influenced physical activity differently in people in different physical environments. 3 This other study was a quasi-experimental evaluation of a multi-strategy commu- nity intervention. There was evidence for a linear trend in increased walking levels among those living in environ- ments with good access to destinations, sidewalks, and shoulders on the street, which suggests that this issue warrant- ed further investigation. METHODS Design This paper is based on a quasi- experimental intervention 4 and exam- ines whether a population-wide mass media-led intervention effect differed by environmental factors. September/October 2011, VoL 26, No. 1 45