Promoting Healthy Lifestyles Using Mobile Phones

Promoting Healthy Lifestyles Using Mobile Phones

The purpose of this research is to test programs to increase physical activity and reduce sedentary behavior using motivational messages over a cell phone.

We want to learn if conceptually-based behavioral interventions for promoting increased physical activity and decreased sedentary behavior via state-of-the-art mobile phones will be efficacious at improving these behaviors relative to commercially available Android applications as a control. If efficacious, these types of intervention programs could be disseminated to a wide variety of sedentary and underactive adults at a relatively low cost. This could have a potentially significant impact on promoting improved health such as reduced obesity, a key problem within the U.S.

Inclusion Criteria:

• aged 45 and older, currently sedentary, owns and uses a cell phone but not a Smartphone, willing to be randomly assigned

Exclusion Criteria:

• free of clinically evident cardiovascular disease or any other medical condition or disorder that would limit participation in moderate intensity physical activities akin to brisk walking