Reuters: Phone Apps Can Help Boost Physical Activity

Apps that prompt users to stand up and move every hour or to aim for a certain number of daily steps do help people add movement and exercise to their daily routines, a recent trial suggests. For the study, users of an app called MyHeart Counts were assigned to four coaching interventions, and each intervention helped increase step counts by a few hundred steps per day, according to the report in The Lancet Digital Health. Future studies should also look at longer interventions, as well as “gamification” potential for smartphone apps, such as competition, collaboration, rewards and support, said Dr. Mitesh Patel of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Read more at Reuters Health