Spam Can be Good for You: E-mails Show Promise in Promoting Healthier Behavior
Spam can clog up your e-mail box but according to a piece published in the American Journal of Health Promotion and coming out of the University of Alberta, it might be beneficial to your health:
A steady diet of e-mails can change people’s outlook and behavior regarding healthier eating and increased physical activity, according to a new study of 2,598 Canadian workers.
Appearing in the July/August issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion, the 12-week study looked at the effectiveness of e-mails received at the workplace in promoting healthy exercise and eating regimes.
The research team, led by Ronald Plotnikoff, Ph.D., and Linda J. McCargar, Ph.D, of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, divided participants into an intervention group that received health-related e-mails and a control group that did not.
The intervention group alone showed an increase in physical activity levels and also had more confidence in being able to participate in physical activity at study’s end. In addition, the intervention group members recognized more pros and fewer cons to physical activity and were more open to making dietary changes.
In fact, the intervention group actually reduced, although marginally, its mean body mass index (BMI), a measure of body fat based on height and weight, over the course of the study. By contrast, the mean BMI for the control group slightly increased.
“E-mail deliveries of health promotion messages can have small yet beneficial effects on health behaviors over a short time frame,†the researchers say, extolling e-mail’s unobtrusiveness, cost-effectiveness and practical appeal.
Ok, nagging about health works!
But, what about those e-mails from Nigeria?