In addition to the standard rehabilitation program, patients in the intervention group received information about the risks of sitting too much. And were given a smart movement meter to take home. After three months, more than half of this group sat for less than 9.5 hours a day. In the control group, with only the rehabilitation program, this was a quarter. The average sitting time also decreased by 1.6 hours.
Smart motion meter
Researcher Bram van Bakel: “Patients in the research group were given a smart exercise meter to take home. This was linked to their smartphone. For example, patients and nurses were shown how much they sat in a day. And the movement meter started to vibrate after sitting for half an hour at a time.” In addition to the exercise meter, patients were educated about the risks of sitting too much. Together with a rehabilitation nurse, goals were set to sit less.
Behavior change
The participants were motivated and showed themselves creatively. Patients are willing to change their behavior, says research leader Thijs Eijsvogels: “Our research also shows that you can change sitting behavior quite easily, but not if you leave people to their own devices. Now that we have demonstrated that we can reduce sitting time, we are going to set up a new study in which we can also demonstrate the health benefits of this.”
