Text messages decrease daily sitting time and improve cholesterol levels in people with rheumatoid arthritis

Text message reminders along with weekly counselling sessions for people with rheumatoid arthritis led to a reduction in sitting time and improvement in cholesterol levels, scientists report in Annals of the Rheumatic Disease.

The team split 150 people with rheumatoid arthritis into groups. One group received text message reminders to reduce sedentary behaviour and three individual motivational counselling sessions. The other group received no intervention.

The people who had counseling and text messages reduced their daily sitting time by 1.61 hours (the other group reduced daily sitting time by 0.59 hours a day). They also had improvements in pain, fatigue and cholesterol levels.

The authors conclude:

“An individually tailored, behavioural intervention reduced daily sitting time in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and improved patient-reported outcomes and cholesterol levels.”

Click here to read the original research.

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