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Fitness research shows that when a recording reminds them, even people who rarely exercise can be persuaded to get off the couch.
Researchers at Stanford University in California who studied sedentary people for a year found that automated exercise reminder phone calls had about the same get-up-and-go power as calls from human counsellors.
"The recording had a very nice, kind of cheerleader voice. It sounded very natural," said study participant Rita Horiguchi. "She would say things like, 'That's very good. I think you can go a little farther next week'. So I would do a little bit more'."
Ms Horiguchi was one of 218 adults over 55 in the San Francisco Bay area who took part in the study, known as Community Health Advice by Telephone and reported in Health Psychology magazine. The goal was to get them out walking at a brisk pace for 30 minutes most days, or engage in some other medium-intense activity, for a total of about 150 minutes a week.
The group was divided into three: people who got no calls, people who were called by trained health educators and people who got computer calls.
After a year, both called groups were topping 150 minutes of exercise a week. Those who got computer calls averaged 157 minutes while human-called participants logged an average 178 minutes. The no-call group averaged only 118.
- AP
