$366K Spent to Use Facebook to Encourage Older Women to Walk

The National Institute on Aging gave researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston $366,386 last year to develop a social media game to encourage older women to walk more and to evaluate whether it works to get that population to exercise more.

The researchers are creating a group on Facebook to motivate women ages 65-85 to play a game there, using photography to engage them in walking activities.

“Older women are in great need of interventions to improve adherence to physical activity recommendations,” the research summary states. “A major barrier to engaging in sustained physical activity is low motivation. We created a game played on a social network that uses photography challenges to target older women's feelings of enjoyment, values, and identity related to physical activity.”

They expect the game will have more success in getting the population to walk for the long-term than other “standard activity monitoring intervention.”

Game participants will receive an activity monitor and access to a private Facebook group, where the research leaders will post weekly challenges. The women will post photos and text related to the challenges, like photos of their favorite place in their neighborhood and what it means to them.

This will go on for one year.

Why does it cost $366,386 to create a free Facebook group to encourage women to post their photos and stories about walking when the social media site is filled with people doing that for free every day?

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