Physical Activity: Stand-Alone Mass Media Campaigns

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Findings and Recommendations

The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) finds insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of stand-alone mass media campaigns to increase physical activity at the population level.

Sixteen eligible studies that evaluated stand-alone mass media campaigns of varied intensity and duration (i.e., 1 week to 5 years), targeting varied populations, using diverse control and comparison conditions and diverse physical activity outcome measures, found modest and inconsistent effects.

The full CPSTF Finding and Rationale Statement and supporting documents for Campaigns and Informational Approaches to Increase Physical Activity: Stand-Alone Mass Media Campaigns are available in The Community Guide Collection on CDC Stacks.

Intervention

Stand-alone mass media campaigns are interventions that rely on mass media channels to deliver messages about physical activity to large and relatively undifferentiated audiences. These campaigns are designed to:

  • Increase awareness and/or knowledge of the benefits of physical activity
  • Influence attitudes and beliefs about physical activity
  • Change physical activity behaviors within defined populations

Messages are transmitted using channels such as newspapers, brochures, manuals, radio, television, billboards, and websites either singly or in combination.

Stand-alone mass media campaigns are distinct from mass media employed as part of broader multicomponent interventions (e.g., broader community-wide campaigns) that also may incorporate individually oriented health behavior change programs and activities, social support networks, and environmental and/or policy changes.

About The Systematic Review

The CPSTF finding is based on evidence from a Community Guide systematic review published in 2002 (3 studies, search period 1980-2000) combined with more recent evidence (13 studies, search period 2000-2009). This finding updates and replaces the 2001 CPSTF finding “Campaigns and Informational Approaches to Increase Physical Activity: Mass Media Campaigns.”

Study Characteristics

  • The studies included three controlled trials, five cohort studies, five cross-sectional studies, and three single-group studies using before after designs
  • Three studies summarized results from the longitudinal, national mass media campaign, brand-named VERB, conducted from 2002 to 2006 to increase physical activity among “tweens,” who were aged 9-13 years at baseline

Summary of Results

Sixteen studies qualified for the review. Study duration ranged from 1 week to 4 years.

  • Proportion of people who reported being physically active (as defined within each study):
    • Median absolute increase of 3.4 percentage points (Interquartile interval [IQI]: -0.6 to 5.7 percentage points; 10 studies)
    • Median relative increase of 6.7% (IQI: -1.6% to 14.1%; 10 studies)
  • In three studies, people reported spending more time engaging in physical activity: median relative increase of 4.4% (range of 3.1% to 18.2%)
  • Three additional studies found people reported being more active as a result of a campaign, though increases were modest

Summary of Economic Evidence

While no studies were identified that evaluated the cost-effectiveness of mass media interventions, several studies reported costs of mass media campaigns, which ranged from $191,000 for a 1-year campaign to $339 million for a 4-year campaign.

Applicability

Applicability of this intervention across different settings and populations was not assessed because CPSTF did not have enough information to determine if the intervention works.

Evidence Gaps

  • Future studies should use standard measures to document campaign dose, intensity, duration, and reach, as these variables influence message awareness and can affect other distal outcomes.
  • Data for proximal outcomes other than awareness listed in the analytic framework were reported rarely. Six studies provided information about knowledge, intentions, or attitudes and beliefs related to physical activity.
  • Studies should also measure proximal outcomes of mass media campaigns (e.g., knowledge, intentions, or attitudes and beliefs) to better determine success or failure of interventions.
  • Future research, at a minimum, should use valid and reliable self-report measures, but ideally, more objective measures of physical activity if feasible and appropriate for the research questions being asked.
  • More research is needed on the harms and benefits associated with physical activity interventions (mass media as well as other types of interventions) to evaluate their safety, and also to evaluate cost effectiveness that includes benefits gained and adverse events encountered.
  • Future research should evaluate the relationship between campaign dose and costs per media channel by outcomes among the target audience(s).
  • More research is needed to understand what specific dose and channels of a media campaign (e.g., Internet, billboards) are most effective for specific target audiences.
  • Audience segmentation and tailoring should be considered when planning multicomponent mass media campaigns and evaluated to advance knowledge in this field.

Implementation Considerations and Resources

CPSTF did not have enough evidence to determine whether the intervention is or is not effective. This does not mean that the intervention does not work, but rather that additional research is needed to determine whether or not the intervention is effective.