NEWS FROM NOVEMBER 11 2015 TRIAL

Subdividing the latter group further, half of participants also received automated but personalized text messages bearing the names of their cardiologists three times a day. The remaining two-thirds of participants could freely view their daily activity levels, including total step count and aerobic activity levels on their smartphones. During the following two weeks, a third of the participants - the control group - had their activity levels tracked but could not view data showing how much they moved. Using a relatively cheap activity tracker, researchers measured participants’ normal, or baseline, daily physical activity levels during week one.

NEWS FROM NOVEMBER 11 2015 TRIAL

The trial involved 48 men and women, ages 18 to 69, followed over a month at the preventive cardiology clinic at Johns Hopkins, all of whom reported low levels of physical activity to their physicians. To answer that question, investigators are conducting a long-term follow-up of participants involved in the original trial. Researchers caution that the study followed people only for a few short weeks, so it remains unclear whether the observed change in activity levels will persist over time. “Think of these messages as digital check-ins from your physician, gently but persistently reminding you to fit more exercise into your day,” says lead investigator Seth Martin, M.D., M.H.S., a preventive cardiologist and assistant professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Indeed, in their study of 48 individuals, those receiving text nudges were twice as likely to walk farther and reach a preset goal of 10,000 steps daily. Instead, they report, personalized text messages that encourage people to go just a bit farther or congratulate them for having done so make the real difference. The idea that tracking physical activity can motivate people to get more of it is hardly novel, researchers say, but their study disputes the notion that awareness alone is enough to get or keep people moving. 9 at the annual American Heart Association meeting, are also published simultaneously in the Journal of the American Heart Association. Linking digital activity trackers to smartphones and periodically pinging users with personalized texts that urge them to walk more can significantly increase physical activity levels and spark healthy behavior changes, according to findings of a pilot study conducted at Johns Hopkins. Personalized Text Messages Can Boost Physical Activity

News from november 11 2015