Phone calls prod sedentary to exercise

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- Telephone calls from a live U.S. health educator or an automated computer system prodded couch potatoes into a regular 150-minute per week exercise program.

Lead author Abby King of the Stanford Prevention Research Center said the researchers were surprised that the computer calls were almost as effective as the calls by a real person.

"This is the first study to directly compare the efficacy of a physical activity program delivered by a computer (vs.) humans and found them to work similarly well," King said in a statement. "Theoretically, it could be delivered to anybody around the country or around the world, and could save time and money."

Many of the 218 San Francisco Bay Area adults over age 55 who participated in the study thought they would need a live human voice to be successful, King said.

The study, published in the journal Health Psychology, found that at six months the results were identical between the two groups -- and by 12 months, there was still virtually no difference in the outcomes.