textSize : default : medium : large    Listening to my local FM rock station (93.6 The Zone), I was surprised to hear the morning DJ talking about pedometers. He was delighted by the generosity of his Special K pedometer, which was crediting him with 10,000 steps for, as he put it, "a few trips to the coffee machine". He'd discovered an almost exercise-free fitness program. Unfortunately, the steps were not originating from Paul Brown, the DJ, but were an artifact of the often erratic plastic giveaway from his Special K box. This may have been a little DJ hyperbole, but was symptomatic of the problems that many people who contacted me encountered with their give-away pedometers from Kellogg's. I've spent much of my adult life encouraging people to be physically active. At times, I felt like a voice crying in the wilderness as people became more and more sedentary. Not surprisingly I was excited by the announcement that Kellogg's Canada was going to partner with the Canadian Institute of Health Research and some other agencies to distribute 800,000 free pedometers to Canadians. The cereal boxes would include a reference to the www.canadaonthemove.ca web site where people could provide their own demographic data and record their daily step-count. This was to be the marriage we are always looking for, of government and industry with the general public being the major beneficiary. Conceptually, the idea is excellent and is the product of some very good minds. The Canada On The Move website designed and built by Blue Spark contains some good features and will be of on-going value to Canadians. I like the single month display, which is like an advent calendar into which you enter your steps each day. The total number of steps accumulated by Canadians makes an impressive looking number when you log on. However, the linchpin of the enterprise, the Kellogg pedometer (step counter), has not lived up to the grand design of the program. The very last thing I want to do is to be critical of an initiative to get people walking, (any jackass can kick down a barn door) but based on the enquiries I made I believe the malfunctions of the Kellogg step-counter and possibly the inexperience of people unfamiliar with pedometers have left a lot of people disillusioned and frustrated. When the Special K pedometers were released in January, myself and fellow step-counting enthusiasts quickly tracked down the supermarkets where they were available and purchased a few boxes. The price was right, $5.99 for a 475 gram box of Special K, which included the pedometer with an "approximate retail value $15". We thought they might be great for schools and other organizations looking for affordable, effective pedometers. I tested my new Special K pedometer in the time-tested way, by going for a walk. All was well on my first walk, which normally takes about 5100 steps (a chocolate bar walk), the Special K pedometer read 4135, but I figured my steps were longer than the one-step-fits-all on the Kellogg step counter. I wore the same one the next day and it quit, never to work again. I tried wearing 2 Special K pedometers simultaneously and got wildly different results, although one of them seemed reasonably accurate. I thought perhaps I was wearing them incorrectly and looked carefully at the instructions. These must have been translated from an oriental language and clearly not proofread for Canadian consumption, although they are unintentionally very funny in a Python-esque way. The paces are detected by a movement of waist. [I'm glad the spelling was correct.] Attach the step counter securely to your waistband or belt, close to the center of your body. False mounting will possibly arouse inaccurate result!!! [It was ever thus]. Two former colleagues at the University of Victoria had similar problems relating to unreliability of the Special K pedometers, the most common being the apparently spontaneous re-setting of the step counter back to zero while it was being worn. I thought that perhaps my colleagues and I had been unlucky and had maybe got a poor batch of pedometers, so I wrote the following letter to my local newspaper, The Victoria Times-Colonist. As you can see there is nothing in the tone of the letter suggesting that there might be a problem with the pedometers. Researcher needs pedometer input I am researching the use of pedometers as given away in Special K cereal boxes over the last few weeks. This was a joint promotion by Kellogg's and the Canadian Institute of Health Research. I am writing an article for my online newsletter, "Well" (www.speakwell.com) and would welcome feedback from any readers who have been using these pedometers to count their steps. I would like to know how well the pedometer performed for them. Has it encouraged them to walk more and have they logged on to the Web site for "Canada On The Move" to donate their steps? They may call me at 721-6997 or email me at mcollis@speakwell.com. Martin Collis, Victoria. The replies saddened me because they confirmed my original impression that we were dealing with an instrument that did not seem suitable for research, or for guiding an individual on their daily step count. So far I have received individual reports on 36 Special K pedometers by email, phone call and personal interviews, only three could be interpreted as being really positive. Below I list some of the typical comments I received. I have limited these to email responses in order to quote the respondents precisely. The idea is great, too bad for me the pedometer never worked. I wore it all day at work as well as took it for a 3km walk on my lunch hour and it told me I took 7 steps. More junk plastic for my recycling. Another writer echoed this ecological concern. My take on the Special K pedometer is that it is an environmental concern. The packaging and the fact that these plastic units, being sold in cereal boxes across our country - that don't work - will now end up in the landfill. In early January (or was it late December?), I bought a box of Special K (which I never eat) for the "free" pedometer. I guess you get what you pay for. I immediately spent $29 on one (Life-Gear at Canadian Tire) which is accurate! I tried to use the Special K pedometer, and it never worked once. I gave it several tries over several days, and the readings were silly, after a whole day I was getting numbers like 285, or even less. Sometimes it would be quite high and then the next time I looked it was way down again. I consider the whole thing to be a waste of time, and just a gimmick to get suckers like me to buy Special K. $15 value, indeed! I hope you publish your research results, I cannot believe I am the only one who was disappointed. I did not log on to the web site. I purchased my two boxes of cereal and received a pedometer in each box. I tried them together and they were very different one was about double the other. I saw your letter in the paper this morning. We bought several boxes of Special K cereal thinking this would be a good thing for our family. We threw away the cereal and found out the pedometers were junk. None of them worked. I still think this is a good idea and I will probably buy a good one. Interesting to read your letter in TC. I have long wondered what a pedometer was, how it measured walking. After using one for almost 3 weeks now, I do see that something happens - how is another matter. This morning, for example, getting washed, shaved and preparing breakfast took me 993? Yesterday I walked 3 measured miles to town indicating about 9000, and later walk and activity totaled 12746. My father, who is 92 today, gave me the pedometer from his box of Special K cereal - being handicapped he won't be using it. It came without instructions so I'm not sure how it should be worn. I fastened it on my slacks at my waist by my right hip before going for my daily walk. I recorded the paces measured on my return home. The next day I did the same but went for a longer walk - it recorded fewer paces. My husband, who golf's as much as the weather will allow, thought he would get the Kellogg's pedometer just to see how many steps he takes while walking the golf course. Unfortunately, the Kellogg promotion is a piece of junk! It just does not work and the cereal went in the garbage too. Now I'll have to buy him a real one! I read your letter in the Times-Colonist this morning with more than casual interest. My Kellogg's pedometer came in a box of Special K about five weeks ago. The cereal, as usual, was good. The pedometer, however, is bad I can't get the damned thing to ped, although it's had several outings while clipped on my belt, over my hip bone. And from a writer in a major health agency. I noticed your letter while in Victoria on business. I purchased a box of the Special K a few weeks ago so I could try out the pedometer because I had heard about it from some colleagues who work in the health field and were encouraging clients to use them. I run for exercise, but didn't find that the pedometer was accurate enough to be reliable. It recorded a step at the slightest movement. I did not log onto the website as I wasn't aware of it (likely because I didn't read through the promotional materials very thoroughly). In theory it is a good concept. In practice it is not reliable enough to base any kind of research on....in my opinion...I would be afraid that people would gain a false sense of security thinking that they are doing all this walking, when in fact, they may not be. The following letter sadly seems to sum up the sense of disillusion and being conned that is inevitable when high hopes are dashed. I am a 50 year-old over-weight female. I thought the pedometer would be a good thing to own even though I am not a cereal aficionado. I was surprised at the poor quality of the pedometer itself. I know the value was only $15 but even so, it looked like something one could purchase in a Dollar Store for $1. I also don't think it is anywhere near accurate as I get different readings for going the same distance, and even when I put it on preparatory to leaving--while sitting perfectly still--it can show up to 10 steps taken. Over all I was hoping it would encourage me to go out more. It has not, although I do take it with me when I remember to (I have no car, so I walk and take the bus). I think that a better quality pedometer might be of more benefit because at least I would have confidence in its calculations and probably would go out more often, as I tend to keep track of various things. Your letter in the paper was the first I had heard of 'donating' steps on a web site. I doubt this has been of much use to you but, as I rarely read the paper, the fact that I even came across it seems like some sort of minor fate. I trust that my name will not be used, although you are welcome to use my particulars if they are applicable. The above reflect the general tone of the responses I received. The 3 major concerns seem to be: I. Ongoing unreliability and inconsistent numbers, which seem to bear no relation to steps taken or distance walked. II. Spontaneous resetting of the step counter back to zero. It is unclear whether this happens because of the pedometer itself, or whether the wearers accidentally hit the unprotected reset button. III. A minor concern. The clip could be better designed. I lost one of mine somewhere on a trip to Toronto. Other responses mentioned this. The writer below clearly felt positive about the stimulus to walk provided by the pedometer and indeed about Special K cereal with the clip being her only concern. Hi. My pedometer made me more conscious of the days I wasn't walking as much and those nights I would go for an extra walk. The problem was that it kept falling off because I am in and out of the car a lot of times during the day. So although I quit wearing it (started again today when you jogged my memory.) I continue to eat the Special K for breakfast and am continuing to lose weight for the last couple of months, eating more healthy food. It did make me more aware of the exercise and nutrition. The next response is similar, mentioning that pedometers in general seem to motivate people (in this case her colleagues) to walk. Again the clip was a concern. Hi, I did buy a box of specially marked Special K as it offered the pedometer. I find wearing a pedometer is a concrete way of keeping tabs of my steps - and it gives me personal satisfaction to do so. I'm not so sure of the quality of the Special K freebie - but know it is ticking off something - each step, or jolt I give it. I seem to put it on daily and record my total at the end of the day and do no more than that. The pedometer clip isn't as tight as it might be and does tend to fall off my waistband fairly easily - so imagine each time it falls it jolts the digital recorder to mark a few extra steps The pedometer hasn't encouraged me to walk more, but I have noticed a number of acquaintances who are wearing pedometers - commercial ones - not Special K ones and are becoming aware of the number of steps they take. Yet another response began, The Kellogg's device had a vital weakness - the belt attachment was too small - it fell off and is gone. On the positive side I had a great phone call from a couple in their 50's, both of whom were using the Special K pedometers, both of whom had lost weight and felt fitter and more energetic than they had in years. The man was averaging over 15,000 steps a day. There is a general feeling that pedometers really do provide a good motivational stimulus to get people walking, even from some people who were not happy with the accuracy of the Special K pedometer. Someone who purchased another pedometer wrote: Since January, I have averaged at least 10,000 steps/day 5 days out of every seven (except when I was ill). I have gone down one size, lost a bit of weight and definitely toned. I feel more energetic, and enjoy finding ways to walk the extra steps. My strategies have included parking further from where I work or shop, walking around my building at work when I go to the washroom, walking my dog longer, and getting out for that lunch-time walk, even when I don't really feel like it. I know I walk much more than average - so find the pedometer affirms my exercise. It was fun to play around with, though. Maybe that was enough to raise awareness. T.S. Eliot said, Between the idea and the reality falls the shadow and in this case I think the shadow was the Special K pedometer, which has probably diminished a potentially terrific project. In the early stages of this article I spoke with Dr. Marco Buono at Kellogg's who was helpful and informed me that, like many pedometers, the Special K was spring loaded and that they had tested a number of thousand on a 'linear shaker table'. There's an old saying that, "You only have one chance to make a good first impression", and for a lot of people their first impression of a pedometer is the one distributed by Kellogg's. None of the people who responded to my enquiries had accessed the CIHR web site (www.canadaonthemove.ca). This was due in part to their disillusion with the pedometer and also to the fact that it is mentioned in relatively small print at the bottom of the back panel of the cereal box. In summary, I was quite taken aback by the negative nature of the responses to my letter in the newspaper. I suspect that some people might not have used the pedometers properly, and I feel more information and better instructions would have helped. Part of successful marketing is to raise awareness and then deliver a usable product and this didn't seem to happen. People look at a pedometer in the same way they would a bathroom scale, if their weights vary from day to day and are different from a standardized scale in a medical office, they will soon lose interest in their house scale. "The numbers on my Kellogg's step-counter seemed about as reliable as the Victoria flower count." Canada On The Move Web Site The name is similar to the America on the Move, National and State web sites, but the layout and content are different. The Canadian version is designed to collect data and to reinforce walking. There is a short quiz titled 'Tell Us About Your Pedometer', which asks questions such as, 'Where did you get it?' and 'How long have you been using your pedometer?' and includes a 20 step accuracy test, but strangely enough omits the obvious question 'What brand and model of pedometer do you own?' (Could there be a legal reason for this?). I'd like to have seen Canada on the Move borrow a few features from their American namesake including the BMI calculator, caloric calculator and a goal setting section. There is a 'glass half full' or a 'glass half empty' perspective to looking at the 120 million plus steps that Canadians have 'donated' to the web site. The half full approach would be that it is an impressive number that is growing day by day and that many Canadians are contributing data to a research platform. The glass half empty approach looks at the numbers differently. At the time of writing this article (March 25, 04) the grand total has been increasing by just about 1 million steps a day. (107,566,000 at 10 am March 19 to 114,762,838 at 10 am March 25). With Kellogg's distributing 800,000 pedometers and if people averaged 10,000 steps a day then this means that about 100 people a day are contributing to the daily total, which is 0.0125% of the people who got a Kellogg's pedometer. (Presumably some of those donating their daily steps will be people involved in designing the project.) Of course, the site is not just for Kellogg's pedometers and there is a direct link from Canada on the Move to the catalogue of the Canadian subsidiary of New Lifestyles featuring the highly rated Digi-Walker pedometers. In fact, New Lifestyles are listed as one of the 6 contributors to the Canada on the Move Step One project. Even if people are averaging 5000 steps a day it's fair to say only a tiny percentage of pedometer owners are contributing to the step total and an almost infinitesimal percentage of the 32 million Canadians. However, the site is now established and, like any web site, can be developed and modified to meet the needs of the users and, in this case, the researchers. People have asked me why Special K, with a glycemic index rating similar to Fruit Loops, was the chosen vehicle for this initiative. The answer I suspect is that they have superb access to the marketplace, and it should be noted that one of the triumphs of this program was successful distribution. The Silver Lining I was looking for a good news story to complete this article and I found one. Our enquiries led me to Luther Court Society and Housing Foundation. At Luther Court, the staff of about 80 have the challenging job of looking after people in the latter years of their life. The challenge for the staff is to bring some joy to the residents and to maintain enthusiasm and zest for life themselves. In response to the Special K promotion they had a great idea. The residents ate Special K, so the organizers made a bulk purchase of the cereal that provided pedometers for the 48 staff who decided to participate in a cumulative walking program titled 'Walk to Puerto Vallarta'. With the cereal purchase, there was a reserve of pedometers to replace those that malfunctioned. These staff divided themselves into 3 groups (The Tijuana's, Hot Tamales and Baja Chicks) and recorded their steps each day. At the end of the week, the team with the most steps was announced and given a small prize. My Executive Assistant, Bev, visited Luther Court and said that maybe we could learn a lot from the attitude of the participants. They were not hung up on the precision of the pedometers and if the pedometers wouldn't stay on their waistbands they attached them to their shoes or ever their bras. All the teams have reached their goal of walking to Puerto Vallarta. Later this month they're having a celebration Mexican Lunch with many prizes, and they're hoping Kellogg's, with whom they're in contact, will provide a grand prize of two airfares to Puerto Vallarta. Winning Team : Baja Chicks With the unorthodox way in which some pedometers are worn and the variability of the instruments there might be a bit of a lottery in terms of actual totals but nobody seems concerned. The good thing is that the promotion got 48 women walking, socializing and having fun. If this has been happening across the country, then my earlier concerns are not important and it doesn't matter how many steps are recorded on a National web site. It should be noted that in September 2004, the staff of Luther Court are planning a 'Walk to France' event. The prize will be a week's stay in a house near Montpellier and with the pressure of competition mounting, they have some concerns about pedometer accuracy and they will be using a more reliable step counter so that they feel the competition is less of a lottery and more a reflection of their daily walking. A lot of money, time and professional expertise was used to create this project. The following information appears in the FAQ's on the web site. Who was involved in developing this project? A Request for Participation was sent to an international community of researchers and stakeholders with experience in areas relevant to this type of initiative. Of the applications we received, members were selected to form a SWATeam (Strategic Working Alliance Team). From the start, an advisory board was also established comprised of leading researchers and experts from various fields of relevance to this project. These individuals helped shape the project in its infancy and continue to offer guidance and support as we move forward. Maybe there was a rush to get the program launched in January 2004, but somewhere, somehow I feel there was a lack of due diligence on the key item, the Special K pedometer. (You can now get one for about a dollar on Ebay). I believe the project would have had a much more positive impact if, instead of 800,000 Special K pedometers ("approximate retail value $15.00"), they had distributed 200.000 of the New Lifestyle Digi-Walker SW200 ($38.99 each) or other accurate step counter. Looking on the bright side, we have a National web site, we've learned some lessons and the word 'pedometer' is a much more familiar part of everyday Canadian vocabulary. Addendum I emailed Kelloggs saying I would be interested to find out: If the pedometer was field tested, other than the testing on the linear shaker table that Marco told me about, and if so, who did the testing? Who manufactured the Special K pedometer? Have you received any feedback about the performance of the pedometers? Do you have some success stories you could share with me? In response to my enquiries, I just received the following letter from the Kellogg's Public Relations Department. Hello Dr. Collis, Thank you for your e-mail.  In the interest of time, I thought I would forward answers to the questions outlined in your original e-mail with consumer feedback to follow in the next day or two.  They are as follows: Testing of pedometers -- The Special K Step Counter is manufactured with a mechanism modeled after some of the most accurate step counters available.  The Special K Step Counter has been thoroughly tested for functionality, accuracy, quality and safety by independent appraisers.  Who manufacturerd the Special K pedometer?  For competitive reasons, we do not disclose this information. Have you received any feedback about the performance of the pedometers? Overall, we have received very positive feedback from our consumers with many consumers looking for additional packages.  A very small percentage of the step counters may not have functioned properly (e.g. inaccurate readings, physical damage) but they were of a small minority and were replaced by our Consumer Pulse Centre.   Do you have some success stories you could share with me? To be forwarded. Hope this helps. Sincerely, Lores Tome Lores forwarded the following 10 examples of positive customer feedback. This is wonderful and I wanted to say thank you. Your company should be very proud of itself for inspiring young and old alike to increase their fitness level. I think this is a great idea. You have really inspired many people thanks. Excellent idea keep up the good work. It's a great service that you are doing to the public. I am getting one for my wife on Valentines. Cape Breton loved it will you bring this back? The best promotion ever. It was a really good idea maybe something you should do again. So there you have it. Kelloggs are happy and I'm not because I'd much rather have written an upbeat article about this fitness related promotion. I suspect a number of people might have done better if they had been provided with clearer instructions and possibly one or two trouble shooting stratagies. What the project did show is that it is possible to get information and a product out to millions of Canadians. If we are going to achieve lifestyle change on a grand scale, this might be a template for future initiatives. Photo of John Kellogg creator of the original Corn Flake Kellogg's story was featured in the movie 'Road to Wellville'.