Researchers wanted to see if workplace programs could help employees become more active. They studied 155 employees at a university, dividing them into three groups. One group received a program combining personal motivational interviews with email reminders. A second group received only email reminders. A third group received no program and served as a comparison.
During the 8-week program, both the personal coaching group and the email-only group increased their daily step counts compared to the control group. On average, they walked about 1,600 more steps per day. After the program ended, the researchers followed people for six months. They found that the gains in step counts slowly declined for everyone, but the decline was slower for people who had received the personal coaching.
It's important to be careful with these results. The step counts were self-reported by the participants, which can be less accurate than device-tracked data. The study also did not provide statistical details like p-values for all comparisons. This was a single study in one workplace, so we don't know if the programs would work the same way in other companies or for other types of workers. The study shows these programs can be helpful, but more research is needed to confirm the findings.