Trapgebruik in een ziekenhuis bevorderd met een bordje bij de trap of de lift

To investigate whether signs encouraging taking the stairs or discouraging taking the elevator lead to an increasing number of patients taking the stairs instead of the elevator in a hospital.

Design

Interventional study.

Method

During a period of 6 weeks in the period October-December 2004, an investigator recorded how many patients took the stairs and how many took the elevator on the first floor of a hospital close to a diabetes outpatient clinic. A baseline measurement was done over a period of 2 weeks and 4 weeks were used for evaluating the effect of 2 different interventions, each lasting 2 weeks. During the first intervention, a sign was hung up near the elevator, which read: ‘Exercise is healthy, take the stairs’. During the second intervention the sign read: ‘Use of this elevator is exclusively for personnel and persons with restricted mobility’. Staff members and disabled patients were excluded from the study.

Results

A total of 2674 movements were counted. Use of the stairs increased statistically significantly during both interventions: from 54.6 to 63.4 during the first intervention and to 70.4 during the second intervention.

Conclusion

Signs in a diabetes outpatient clinic that either encouraged the use of the stairs or discouraged the use of the elevator increased the patients’ use of the stairs.

Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd. 2005;149:2900-3