Quick, easy intervention; Pedometers: can they move sedentary people?(Clinical Rounds)

INDIANAPOLIS -- A pedometer may be just the tool that time-stretched physicians need to raise sedentary patients from their lounging chairs and nudge them into health-enhancing activity, Dr. Steven Stovitz said at the annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine.

Pedometers are becoming so ubiquitous that even McDonald's distributed them earlier this year with some adult-oriented low-fat meals, said Dr. Stovitz, a professor of family practice and community health at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

In a pilot study of 94 patients, Dr. Stovitz and his colleagues found that patients who received a pedometer and instructions on its use were significantly more likely to increase their physical activity than were those in a control group who received encouragement to exercise but no pedometer.

"This intervention is so simple that it could easily be used by physicians," Dr. Stovitz said in an interview. "Historically, our attempts at motivating our patients to increase their physical activity have been shown not to have a great effect, so [physicians] have some cynicism in this area."

Unlike a health risk such as smoking, sedentary lifestyle usually is not easily quantified and not usually noted on a patient's chart, Dr. Stovitz continued. But he maintained that in less than 1 minute out of a typical office visit, offering a pedometer along with instruction on its use could be "one more tool that we could use."

In the study, Dr. Stovitz met with all patients aged older than 18 years at a family practice clinic until 50 were randomized to the pedometer group. Patients were excluded if they already were meeting certain physical activity guidelines, they had a medical condition that precluded additional physical activity, or they were unable to give follow-up information over the phone.

The mean body mass index of both the ...