Spend too much time on your phone? Cal Poly studying app to cut down screen time
Spending too much time on your phone, in front of the TV or playing video games?
Cal Poly and Arizona State University are studying a new app that aims to help people cut down screen time and get moving — and they need your help.
The schools are looking for participants in the study.
“We know that sedentary screen time is bad for health, but there’s very little research on how to actually reduce screen time,” said Sarah Keadle, a professor in Cal Poly’s Kinesiology and Public Health Department and lead researcher on the study. “We are excited about the technology-based approach that allows us to monitor all aspects of screen time, and we know that apps-based interventions are effective in increasing physical activity.”
Research has found that sedentary screen time (including activities like watching TV, browsing social media and playing video games) has increased during the pandemic, according to a Cal Poly news release.
On an average day, Americans spend nearly eight hours engaging in recreational sedentary screen time, the release said. This lack of movement shortens life expectancy and increases risk for cancer, diabetes and heart disease.
Researchers from Cal Poly’s Center for Health Research and Arizona State’s College of Health Solutions have created StandUPTV, an app that aims to get people to get off the screens and get moving.
Around 240 participants in the 16-week study will receive a Fitbit to monitor activity and will be asked to monitor screen time and complete web-based assessments.
“Screen time consumes the majority of our leisure time and displaces opportunities to be physically active,” Keadle said. “All participants who enroll in the study will receive a behavioral intervention and self-monitoring tools that we hypothesize will decrease screen time and ultimately improve mental and physical health.”
The app may ask participants to “earn” screen time by completing 10 minutes of exercise. For others, it may enforce a reduction in screen time or send app-based messages to participants informing them of the detriments of their screen time and advice to reduce such activity.
Researchers will call participants regularly and participants will be measured for changes in weight and activity level.
To qualify for the StandUPTV study, you must:
▪ Be between the ages of 23 and 64;
▪ Own a smartphone or tablet; and
▪ Have internet access and/or unlimited data plan.
For more information about the study, call the research team at 805-756-5506 or visit healthresearch.calpoly.edu/standuptv.
The study is funded by the National Institutes of Health.
This story was originally published May 30, 2021 at 1:27 PM.
