BACKGROUND: Using data from the SHAPE trial, a randomized 6-month neighborhood-based intervention designed to increase walking activity among older adults, this study identified and analyzed social-ecological factors mediating and moderating changes in walking activity. METHODS: Three potential mediators (social cohesion, walking efficacy, and perception of neighborhood problems) and minutes of brisk walking were assessed at baseline, 3-months, and 6-months. One moderator, neighborhood walkability, was assessed using an administrative GIS database. The mediating effect of change in process variables on change in brisk walking was tested using a product-of-coefficients test, and we evaluated the moderating effect of neighborhood walkability on change in brisk walking by testing the significance of the interaction between walkability and intervention status. RESULTS: Only one of the hypothesized mediators, walking efficacy, explained the intervention effect (product of the coefficients (95% CI) 8.72 (2.53 to 15.56). Contrary to hypotheses, perceived neighborhood problems appeared to suppress the intervention effects (product of the coefficients (95% CI -2.48 (-5.6 to -0.22). Neighborhood walkability did not moderate the intervention effect. CONCLUSION: Walking efficacy may be an important mediator of lay-lead walking interventions for sedentary older adults. Social-ecologic theory-based analyses can support clinical interventions to elucidate the mediators and moderators responsible for producing intervention effects.

Full text (sometimes free) may be available at these link(s):      help

• PubMed Central
• DOI
• PubMed
• PDF locator
• publisher