Videoconferencing gets older adults moving as health lessons put to practical use

The COVID-19 pandemic made videoconferencing software commonplace in businesses and even schools, but this communication tool has the potential to offer benefits beyond the office or classroom. An Osaka Metropolitan University-led research team has been exploring how videoconferencing can improve the health of older adults living in the countryside.

OMU Associate Professor Kazuki Uemura of the Graduate School of Rehabilitation Science and colleagues devised a 12-week health education program conducted using the videoconferencing software Zoom, with the aim of having participants engage in active learning. A control group was provided a similar 12-week program by email, with attached pdf files giving health instructions in a passive learning format.

The findings were published in the Journal of Aging and Physical Activity.

The researchers assessed the participants before and after the 12 weeks, then performed a follow-up at 36 weeks. Their results showed that compared to the control group the videoconferencing group tended to follow the health advice and showed some improvement in the amount of time spent doing physical activities as opposed to sedentary behavior.

"This study proposes a new health education program that is not dependent on location or distance and takes sustainable behavioral changes into consideration," Professor Uemura suggested.

"In the future, by expanding the implementation scale and conducting further verification, we aim to popularize such health programs that everyone, everywhere can participate in."