Results of an Organization-wide Physical Activity Promotion Intervention Within a Very Large Academic Health Care System.

Summary: Even healthcare workers, who know the risks of inactivity better than anyone, often struggle to get enough exercise. To address this, a large hospital system launched a 10-week step-count challenge for its employees, using smartphone apps to track progress and offering raffle prizes as incentives. Over 3,500 staff members signed up. The researchers split participants into two groups: one received standard weekly emails, while the other received emails that included personalized progress updates. While many participants stopped tracking their steps over time, the group that received personalized feedback maintained significantly higher average step counts throughout the program compared to the standard group. This suggests that seeing your own data helps keep you moving.