Changes to men’s walking and the contribution of walking to self-reported physical activity in the EuroFIT programme

Objective: Gender-sensitive approaches to increasing men’s physical activity (PA) through sports settings have shown promise across cultural contexts. We examined changes to men’s walking and the contribution of walking towards self-reported PA after participating in the men-only European Fans in Training (EuroFIT) programme before exploring men’s experiences of sustaining walking to explain the quantitative findings. Design: A sequential mixed-methods design was used to collect self-reported PA questionnaire data as part of a randomised controlled trial at baseline, post-programme and 12-month follow-up, together with focus groups with participants. Setting: EuroFIT was delivered by football club/community coaches to overweight fans in football clubs across England, the Netherlands, Portugal and Norway. Results: Linear regression modelling demonstrated that self-reported walking was significantly higher at both post-programme (426 metabolic equivalents [METs], 95% confidence interval [CI]: 287–565, p <.001) and at 12-month follow-up (343 METs, 95% CI: 205–482, p <.001) in all countries in favour of the intervention group, despite a large decline in Norway from post-programme to follow-up. The contribution of walking towards total PA did not change after participating in EuroFIT. Qualitative analysis indicated that most men were positive about walking and had embodied learning from the EuroFIT programme, but also that some men also considered walking a transitional activity towards other more intensive forms of PA. Conclusion: EuroFIT succeeded in helping overweight, male football fans increase walking as part of their self-reported total PA. Although the percentage of walking in relation to total PA remained the same for participants in both groups, EuroFIT helped men to integrate walking into their daily lives.