The Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC) announced a $65.2 million investment in research to tackle obesity and diabetes. One of the studies plans to explore technologies to decrease sitting time at work.

The HRC announced an investment in several studies to better understand how to reduce the threat of obesity. Two studies look at how to reduce obesity in infancy by providing information and support. Another looks at how the built urban environment alters the physical activity level and health in adolescents.

But the one we have our eyes on is the one being led by Dr. Louise Foley from The University of Auckland. Dr. Foley will:

“develop new technologies to monitor the amount of time spent sitting and doing physical activity, and incorporate these into an automated intervention which will provide feedback appropriate to an individual’s activity profile via mobile phone and email. The intervention will be pilot tested to give a preliminary indication of the effects on health outcomes. Improving both sitting and physical activity behaviors simultaneously could potentially have greater positive impact on health than targeting either behavior in isolation.”

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