Press & PR

A new study has unearthed the possibility of using telephone call prompts to get normally sedentary people exercising.

Researchers based at California's Stanford University School of Medicine discovered that regular phone calls made by both a human health advisor and an automated voice system helped a group of normally inactive people to get more exercise.

A group of 218 Americans over the age of 55 took part in the project, which saw them draw up an exercise plan with a health expert before receiving frequent phone calls to check their progress, Reuters reports.

Published in the journal Health Psychology, the findings show that, after a year, those people in the automated voice group were getting an average of 157 minutes of exercise a week - exceeding the original target of 150 - while those speaking to a real person averaged 178 minutes.

While the human voice method may have been slightly more successful, the automated system could be a more cost-efficient way of improving exercise levels across the US, lead researcher Dr Abbey C. King told the news provider.

People in the over 50 age group now make up a quarter of all internet users in the UK, according to research from Ofcom.

The system could potentially be implemented with internet telephone services to reach a wider audience and keep costs down.

Vonage offers a low cost alternative to traditional fixed telephone line providers, by routing calls over an existing broadband connection.