Procedures
MINOR, RECRUITMENT
The design of this replication study was nearly identical to Study 1 with two changes: (1) we provided seasonally-appropriate hiking equipment based on barriers reported in the first study; (2) we made minor modifications to the online surveys as described below. Collection of priority outcomes (hiking frequency, sleep duration, stress) remained the same as Study 1. We set out to examine whether we could increase uptake of this intervention by addressing reported barriers, and whether this would impact hiking frequency and aspects of well-being as well. Because a substantial number of participants in Study 1 reported barriers related to equipment for and/or comfort with winter hikes, in Study 2 we mailed winter traction cleats to the intervention group after randomization in an effort to increase the feasibility of the challenge hikes.Participants completed online surveys following recruitment (baseline) and ~ 6 (midpoint) and ~ 12 weeks after baseline (post-intervention). Participants were randomized to a study group after baseline as in Study 1. Following randomization, the intervention group received access to that year’s Western New York Winter Hiking Challenge, which ran from late December 2021 through late March 2022. Participants received a code that allowed them to register for this hiking challenge for free ($20 value), and upon registering, received access to hiking challenge materials as in Study 1. In this study, they also received winter traction cleats shortly after randomization via postal mail. The timing and content of the activity sheet and delayed intervention provided to the control group were the same as in Study 1, plus the control group also received hiking socks at the end of this study that were of a similar monetary value as the winter traction cleats, in an effort to balance the materials provided across groups over the course of the study.