Changing the hearts and minds of policy makers: An exploratory study associated with the West Virginia Walks campaign

Purpose. To pilot test whether West Virginia Walks changed local policy makers' awareness of walking-related issues. Design. A quasi-experimental design with preintervention and postintervention mail surveys. Setting. Morgantown, WV (intervention community), and Huntington, WV (comparison community). Subjects. One hundred thirty-three and 134 public officials in Morgantown and 120 and 116 public officials in Huntington at baseline and at follow-up, respectively. Intervention. An 8-week mass media social ecological campaign designed to encourage moderate-intensity walking among insufficiently active persons aged 40 to 65 years. Measures. Policy makers listed three problems they believed needed to be addressed in their community. They then rated the severity of several problems that many communities face using a Likert scale, with 1 representing "not a problem" and 5 representing "an extremely important problem." Analysis. Independent sample t-tests were used to examine differences in mean responses at baseline and at follow-up. Results. Statistically significant increases in the perceived importance of walking-related issues were observed among policy makers in Morgantown but not in the comparison community. Conclusions. Integrated communitywide health promotion campaigns designed to influence the public can also affect the perceptions of policy makers. Future research should examine this linkage and determine whether resource allocation and policy changes follow such interventions.