Prescribing Pleasure and Meaning

Introduction Regular physical activity such as daily walking has numerous health benefits.Walking is a simple type of physical activity that can be done almost anywhere and is the most commonly reported form of physical activity among adults. CDC data show that people who walk are three timesmore likely to meet the physical activity guidelines than those who do not. Encouraging inactive individuals to integrate walking into their daily routine has the potential to yield significant public health benefits. To promote walking among Americans and achieve these benefits, new population-wide initiatives are being launched, including an upcoming Surgeon General’s Walking Call to Action (planned release Fall 2014) and the EveryBodyWalk! initiative. How health professionals and organizations communicate about walking brands it to the public and will influence the ultimate success of this new walking movement. Messages to promote walking that deliver accurate health information but ignore evidence-based principles of motivation and decision making, the underlying mechanisms of behavioral sustainability, will inadvertently undermine these population-level initiatives. To optimize the behavioral impact of these national initiatives, the messaging to promote walking delivered in communities and health clinics should be informed by relevant affective and behavioral science. It is important to shift from a medical to a marketing paradigm to move beyond simply delivering health education to actually motivating consistent walking behavior. Although counterintuitive, the benefits of walking typically emphasized by clinicians and social marketing, such as “better health” and “disease prevention,” are not the same