America Walks is the first research study to determine walking activity of Americans using mobile phones. The entire study will be conducted virtually by requiring participants to download a mobile phone application ("App"). The App will leverage the mobile phones step count sensor technology to automatically determine participants daily walking activity.
The study will be conducted for 120 days and each participant will be expected to participate for 30 days. No potential risk is anticipated from the study beyond the risk that is entailed in walking or in using mobile phones. Use of the study App may cause some device battery usage but this would be minimal. There is a risk of loss of confidentiality of your data.
It is well known that physical activity can promote well-being and help prevent several chronic diseases. It is recommended that an individual should do moderate to vigorous walking for 30 minutes or walk approximately 10,000 steps everyday. However, many Americans walk much less.
The data collected as part of the study will be used to display the step counts of all participants in the study on a map. Additional details will be provided for each demographic category in a graph view. This will allow you to see how your steps compare to others in your state/city and demographic category. Data will also be used to show a leaderboard displaying a ranking of states based on average daily steps walked by participants in that state and your ranking in your state and nationally. Additional aggregate metrics will be displayed on the study website
Walk for your state, Walk for yourself. Download America Walks to participate in the study