Using stair climbing instead of escalators as a sport for all: The effect of posters and encouraging signs

Taking the stairs instead of escalators or elevators is a free and beneficial physical activity that can be done by most people in most places including malls, worksites, libraries, and other such facilities. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of using health-promoting posters to encourage people to use stair instead of escalators in the five underground metro stations in Kuala lumpur, Malaysia. The posters were placed the point-of-choice between the stairs and ascending escalators at eye level and the number of people who selected stairs or ascending escalators recorded. Accounts were done at the same time, on the same weekday and 5 consecutive weeks. Observations took place in five stages of baseline, First intervention, First post-intervention, second intervention and Second post-intervention. During the study in all five stations, the total number of 48635 choices between the stairs and the ascending escalator were observed. There were significant increase in stair use between baseline and the first intervention phase (from 4/5% to 19/3%), and between the first post intervention and the second intervention phase (from 6/6% to 22/8%) when the posters were introduced for the first and the second time. I addition, there were significant decrease between the first intervention and the first post-intervention phase (19/3 to 6/6%), and between the second intervention and the second post intervention phase stair use decreased significantly (from 22/8 to 8/7%) when the posters were removed for the first and the second time. However, the level of stair use after the second post-intervention phase significantly exceeded the baseline level (8/7 vs. 4/5%). The results of this study showed that using posters significantly increased the percentage of stair users. Based on these results, it suggests that public health promoters use simple and low-cost tools such as posters to promote lifestyle based health-enhancing physical activity by encouraging individuals to opt stairs.