Background/Purpose More than 80% of adults do not meet the guidelines of 150 minutes a week of moderate intensity aerobic physical activity. The purpose of this study was to determine if electronic messaging on cell phones would increase average weekly minutes of cardiorespiratory physical activity (CPA) in older adults.
Method Participants were 28 male and female older adults (M age = 60 years, SD = 5.99, Range = 51-74 years) who worked with a personal trainer for at least 6 consecutive months. Using an ABBA counterbalanced within-subjects design, participants were randomly assigned to begin the 4-week study receiving either the treatment or control condition. At the end of the first 2 weeks, participants changed conditions. During the treatment condition participants received a morning and evening text message reminder about CPA 3 days each week. Participants in the control condition received only an evening text message 3 days each week. Participants reported minutes of CPA by cell phone e-mail or text.
Analysis/Results The within-subjects MANOVA showed significant group differences, Wilks' Lambda = 0.82, F (1, 27) = 5.76, p < .05, ηp2 = .18, observed power = .64. Specifically, participants in the treatment condition (M = 96.88 minutes, SD = 62.90) had significantly greater weekly average minutes of CPA compared to the participants in the control condition (M = 71.68 minutes, SD = 40.98).
Conclusions Electronic messaging on cell phones was effective at increasing minutes of CPA and shows promise for motivating older adults to meet the CPA guidelines.