Close X
Thursday, November 28, 2024
ADVT 
Tech

App that can make obese people agile

Darpan News Desk IANS, 27 Jun, 2014 12:26 PM
    If you are used to a sedentary lifestyle, this app can help you become a little active.
     
    This smartphone-based app can produce short-term reductions in sedentary behaviour that may be effective in improving health.
     
    More sedentary time, regardless of physical activity levels, is associated with greater risk of obesity, cardiovascular disease and mortality.
     
    "Almost everyone knows that physical activity is important. But it's not widely recognised that someone who runs five miles in the evening but spends the rest of the day sitting at a desk can be putting their health at risk," said co-researcher Dale Bond from The Miriam Hospital, Rhode Island, in the US.
     
    "That smartphone you use so often throughout the day could now actually help to improve your health," he added.
     
    Bond and Graham Thomas from the same institute worked with their colleagues to develop a smartphone-based intervention to reduce the amount of time obese individuals sit or recline while awake.
     
    The smartphone app, "B-Mobile," was tested in a study of primarily middle-aged women who were obese, although the intervention can be applied to those who are not obese.
     
    The app automatically monitored the time participants spent being sedentary, and after an extended period with no activity, prompted participants via a tone paired with motivational messages to get up and walk around for a few minutes.
     
    Participants received feedback providing encouragement for taking a break.
     
    Researchers tested three different approaches to see which was best at reducing the total amount of sedentary time.
     
    Even though all three were successful, researchers found it is better to take shorter breaks more often for better health.
     
    "Prompting frequent, short activity breaks may be the most effective way to decrease excessive sedentary time and increase physical activity in individuals who are overweight or obese," Bond said.
     
    The findings appeared in the journal PLOS ONE.

    MORE Tech ARTICLES

    Kerala students to compete in designing a Mars rover

    Kerala students to compete in designing a Mars rover
    Students of an engineering college in Kerala have been selected to compete in a challenge to design a rover for the US Mars exploration mission.

    Kerala students to compete in designing a Mars rover

    Robots to motivate you!

    Robots to motivate you!
    California-based NGO XPRIZE has launched a competition inviting teams to develop artificially intelligent (AI) systems capable of delivering a talk at the TED (Technology, Education, Design) conference without human intervention.

    Robots to motivate you!

    Cheers! Google Glass to earn you a free drink in this bar

    Cheers! Google Glass to earn you a free drink in this bar
    Wear the Google wearable computer device and get your drink absolutely free at this bar at a San Francisco-based hotel.

    Cheers! Google Glass to earn you a free drink in this bar

    Google encrypts all emails for a spy-free Gmail

    Google encrypts all emails for a spy-free Gmail
    In a bid to stop snooping on its users, Google has overhauled its Gmail service in a big way - encrypting every single email you send or receive.

    Google encrypts all emails for a spy-free Gmail

    Turkey bans Twitter

    Turkey bans Twitter
    Turkey has banned social networking site Twitter, media reported. The ban came to light when Twitter users, trying to log on to their accounts, were redirected to a statement by Turkey's telecommunications regulator instead, BBC reported

    Turkey bans Twitter

    Australia eases visa laws for Indian, Chinese students

    Australia eases visa laws for Indian, Chinese students
    In a significant reform of the immigration laws affecting international students, Australia has eased the financial requirements for the visa applicants from "high risk" countries like India, China and Pakistan.

    Australia eases visa laws for Indian, Chinese students