People who spend their days in front of a computer may want to check out some fitness-related Web sites, according to a study published on May 14. Researchers found that Internet-based exercise programs worked as well as printed advice in getting sedentary adults to take up regular physical activity.
One year into the study, the Internet users were getting 80 to 90 minutes of exercise each week. The findings are important, say the study authors, because they suggest that millions of sedentary Americans could be reached through one of the modern conveniences blamed for keeping them chair-bound.
"In 2006, 147 million American adults were Internet users," lead study author Dr Bess H. Marcus said in a statement.
"If sedentary individuals are at least as likely as active individuals to use the Internet, this means roughly 80 million under-active adults are online and might be reached via Web-based interventions," said Marcus, a professor of psychiatry and human behaviour at Brown University Medical School in Providence, Rhode Island. She and her colleagues report their findings in the current issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.