Prompting health professionals to be activity role models--motivating stair use at the 2001 ACSM scientific meeting.

Background: This intervention promoted stair use among people attending the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) annual meeting. Methods: All attendees using the stairs or escalators in the main lobby were unobtrusively observed for 3 days and coded for activity choices to get to the second floor. During day 2, a prominent sign stating "Be a role model. Use the stairs!" encouraged point-of-choice decisions favoring stairs over the escalator. The sign was removed on day 3. Results: 16,978 observations were made. Stair use increased from 22.0% on day 1 to 29.3% and 26.8% on days 2 and 3, respectively (P values < .001). Active choices (stair use or walk up escalator) increased from 28.3% on day 1 to 40.1% and 40.2% on subsequent days. Analyses were similar after adjustment for gender, estimated age category, and race. Conclusions: Relatively few conference attendees were persuaded to model stair-use behavior. Health professionals should be encouraged to be "active living" role models.