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This issue of the Canadian Journal of Public Health contains several articles related to a novel public-private collaboration to increase physical activity among Canadians. Because physical activity plays a critical role in the reduction of chronic diseases,1 assessment of the impact of unique efforts such as this campaign to change physical activity levels provides important information that can be incorporated into future interventions.
In December 2003, Kellogg Canada initiated a series of media messages to walk more and use step counters (pedometers), and in January 2004, began distributing 2 million pedometers in specially marked cereal boxes of Special K* and Special K* Red Berries. Also in December, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) in collaboration with Kellogg Canada and several other partners initiated a Canada on the Move (COTM) website (www.canadaonthemove.ca) that was used to collect data to assess the impact of the pedometer distribution and to promote walking. Use of the website was encouraged on Kellogg's* cereal boxes, and separate press releases from CIHR and Kellogg Canada publicized the project and the importance of increased walking. The articles included in this issue represent some of the research supported by the Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism, and Diabetes of CIHR, and examine the campaign from a variety of perspectives, using several different and complementary sources of data.
Despite the wide distribution of pedometers through a variety of programs, the uptake, duration and health effects of pedometer use have not been extensively studied. In theory, the use of a self-monitoring measure like a pedometer should reinforce walking behaviour and its health benefits. Whether pedometers successfully facilitate this outcome depends on whether the target audience for the initiative is reached and perceives a benefit in walking, whether pedometer use reinforces the behaviour, and whether the use of a pedometer with complementary messages that promote its use sustain walking sufficient to create a health benefit. Although the studies included here do not address all of these questions, they provide some useful insights into this problem.
One of the first concerns is whether the pedometers distributed accurately captured the level of physical activity of those who used them. The article by Tudor-Locke et al. (in this issue) provides a useful comparison of the pedometer distributed by Kellogg Canada with...