Growing healthy families: family use of pedometers to increase physical activity and slow the rate of obesity.

Objective: We conducted a study to determine if wearing a pedometer affects weight, body mass index (BMI), or mediators of physical activity among families.

Methods: Eighty-seven families were randomized to 1 of 3 treatments: pedometer plus education (PE), pedometer (P), or control (C). Participants in the PE and P groups wore pedometers and were encouraged to walk 10,000 steps daily for 12 weeks.

Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality (WCHQ): lessons learned.

The Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality demonstrated that seven hospitals, six multi-specialty physician groups, four health plans and nine employers from across the state can agree upon goals and work collaboratively to achieve them. Together they created: A public/private partnership to define common measures of health care quality that make sense to purchasers/consumers. A report that allows all health care providers to compare data against the measures reported, and evaluate their own performances.