Comments on: Americans Jump Online for Exercise Information

By: Carol

Carol — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:58:35 +0000

Lindsey – I think you are exactly right – there is huge potential to utilize mobile technologies to keep people mobile, and the future is very exciting.

By: Lindsey Hoggle, MS, RD, PMP

Lindsey Hoggle, MS, RD, PMP — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:55:42 +0000

Carol–thanks for the great synopsis of stats from Pew Internet! I do agree that mobile technologies can help with the exercise initiative! When I observe my parents (who do have the internet), I think they are great candidates for an easy, usable device to track their exercise program (which they also have.) As much as I love and use the internet, it often offers “too much” for those wanting only one task to accomplish. The potential for future in this area is exciting!

By: Carol

Carol — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 02:44:13 +0000

I’ll think about qualitative data and get back to you. For those who haven’t clicked through the new Pew site, the design is a stellar model for others who release reports and wish to highlight sections. I’ve added in additional hyperlinks to the various referenced parts to demonstrate how user-friendly it is.

Wish I could attend the CDC National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing and Media and will be looking for a hashtag to follow!

By: Susannah Fox

Susannah Fox — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:53:12 +0000

I wish I did have more details for you on those questions! But no, we just had that one question in the survey about fitness info. I am hoping to do some qualitative surveys over the next year to fill in some of these blanks – please let me know if you have ideas about how else to collect stories (or better, data).

Andre, I’m definitely going to reference your work when I talk about social media’s promise for public health at NCHCMM next week (http://www.cdc.gov/healthmarketing/NCHCMM2009/about_conference/about_nchcmmcon.htm). See you there!

Finally, I forgot to mention another reason why we decided to release all the topics as a package: our new site design allows us to create stand-alone sections so you can drop right in to (and share) just the exercise/fitness data. See: http://shar.es/i7mW

By: Carol

Carol — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:22:32 +0000

Susannah – Thank you so much for the outstanding report. You were exactly spot on to include the fitness data in the context of the other data, as it really showcases the relative impact. Do you have more unpublished tidbits on exercise? Your report left me hungry for info such as: Of the folks that go online for fitness/exercise info, what are they looking for? Are they finding it? Are they already active and looking for marathon training advice, or are they sedentary and looking for help to get off the couch? Do they become more active as a result of the information they find?

Andre – In terms of mobile technology, you, Susannah and I are on the same wave length. How can we play to the strengths of mobile to encourage folks to start and stay mobile? In my mind, this is absolutely key, especially in order to reach the younger generation of cell phone-loving, plus-sized kids.

By: Andre Blackman

Andre Blackman — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:26:11 +0000

This is great stuff Carol – I agree that many of the ‘record your progress’ sites and tools are useful in the short term but after the individuals truly does get active, it gets harder to see the usefulness.

I love how the Pew information can be used for such a wide range of insightful thinking. Also refreshing to learn about the initiative to get exercise into physicians’ recommendations. Public health is all about prevention over medication.

By: Susannah Fox

Susannah Fox — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:13:10 +0000

Thanks, Carol! I’m so happy you picked up on this. The growth of interest in fitness was remarkable and in fact we considered releasing it as a separate report. But we decided that it made the most sense in the context of the other topics, particularly when you compare fitness searches to Rx and others.

I think you’re right that mobile tech could lead people to track their exercise regimen. Mobile makes it easy to do all kinds of status updates and now one-third of adults have used a cellphone or Smartphone for email, IM, or info-seeking (see: Wireless Internet Use, http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/12-Wireless-Internet-Use.aspx)