Want to be more physically active? Leave your partner at home!
As populations around the world grow increasingly older, societies are promoting healthy ageing. People are encouraged to motivate each other by exercising together. According to research published in the ‘International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction’(opens in new window), it might be time to go solo to maintain health and fitness goals.
Real-time personalised feedback a great motivator
A research team at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore found that older adults who exercised together had lower physical activity levels than those who did so without their partner. In a 3-month experiment, 240 participants married and living with their spouses in Singapore aged between 54 and 72 were given fitness trackers. They were divided into groups: two groups of 30 couples who worked out together and two groups of 60 who worked out alone. Half received real-time fitness feedback from their tracker apps, while the other half had them disabled. The researchers used the trackers to gather data related to daily steps, calories burned, heart rate, distance covered and sleep. They recorded how consistently the volunteers met daily step counts of 5 000, 7 500, 10 000 and 15 000, as well as daily mean and median number of steps. Results showed that those who received feedback met counts of 7 500 and 10 000 more often than those with no feedback.
Habits and routines are hard to break
“The average participant in our study is 60 years old and has been married to and living with the same spouse for 30 years,” explained lead author Dr Sapphire Lin from the SingHealth Centre for Population Health Research and Implementation in Singapore in a news release(opens in new window). “This suggests that the study participants have well-established routines that do not necessarily include exercising with their spouse. For these couples, changing daily habits could require a major reshuffling of set habits and routines ingrained in their family life after years of marriage. This makes incorporating exercise difficult and could lead to a demotivating effect.” Dr Lin further elaborated: “Our research suggests that older adults looking to introduce exercise into their lifestyles may find it more effective to focus on changing their own routines rather than attempting to exercise as a couple and seeking to impose changes on their partner.” The researchers are now analysing the data to put forward policies that encourage active ageing. They want to determine how such policies can bridge the gaps in health and technology inequalities for adults with lower socio-economic status. The aim is to get this segment of the population active.