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It’s not the first study to suggest that electronic health coaching works, but new research coordinated by Johns Hopkins University adds to an important and growing body of evidence suggesting that electronic health messages and online  health promotion programs can greatly improve individual health and quality of life outcomes…on par with in-person interactions, but at a fraction of the cost.

In the new research, the performance of high-touch, electronic-touch, and no-touch weight-loss programs were compared across more than 400 obese men and women over a two-year period. The researchers found that the high-touch and electronic-touch programs were about equally effective at reducing weight over the period, with the no-touch approach (intended as a control group) trailing significantly behind. The new research is consistent with similar findings in other health areas – see for example Smoking Textation – underscoring the power of e-coaching for greater health.

The new study and related research point to the power of electronic media and online tools to positively alter our health orientation and behavior generally, and even to counter widespread modern messaging that encourages health-reducing attitudes and choices. We therefore encourage you to infuse your personal electronic environment with positive and health-affirming messages, perhaps beginning by receiving regular health-promoting ideas and inspiration from HumanaNatura by subscribing to NaturaLife.

You can learn more about the new research at Remote Weight Loss Works and sign up to receive HumanaNatura’s electronic health newsletter at Join Us. You can also access and explore all of HumanaNatura’s member-supported online health programs and tools for free at HumanaNatura, Personal Health Program, and Community Health Program.

Photo courtesy of Mouse.

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HumanaNatura is on holiday for the remainder of November. Regular breaks from our routines are a chance for fun, unplanned experiences, and new perspectives. If you struggle to make time for breaks and healthy non-work time in your life, learn how you can move to a 1000 hour work-year – working six hours a day, four days a week, and forty weeks a year – via Mark Lundegren’s popular article The Real New Economy. Wishing you new health, and see you in December!  HumanaNatura

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At HumanaNatura, our goal is to both inspire and inform, so that each of us makes progressively healthier and higher quality choices over time. This strategy is in keeping with the scientific foundations of our natural health system, and with research suggesting that a mix of good facts and feelings best steers us toward improved life and health.

A new study by Harvard University affords a nice informational or teachable moment, one that can help us better understand and make use of the health research we encounter. In the new study, public health researchers found that reported soft drink consumption in teens was closely associated with reported violent behavior. For our discussion, the key words from the study are “associated” and “reported.”

When researchers state an association or correlation like this, they are indicating that two or more things have been observed moving together in a pattern. Correlations can be positive (with things moving in the same direction) or negative (moving in opposite directions) but they cannot be neutral (since no movement means no correlated or concurrent change). Importantly, association or correlation never means that causation or cause and effect has been established (that A causes B, or the reverse). In reporting on the new study, the researchers took pains to highlight that they have not shown causation between soft drinks and teen violence, in either a forward or backward direction.

When studies like this talk about a reported behavior or condition, they mean just that. Participants were asked one or more questions and gave a reply or report. As you might suspect, what we say we do and what we actually do can be substantially at odds with one another, either because we are intentionally withholding or exaggerating information, or because we have a distorted recollection or sense of the information. A much more reliable source of information is observed or measured behavior or data, and even better than this are observations and measurements that are double-blind (where neither the observed person nor observer is privy to key details of the measurement process).

If correlational and reported behavior studies are each less valuable than available alternatives, why have them at all? First, because they are often easier and much less expensive to perform. Second, they can suggest areas for more intensive follow-up research. And in the case of correlational research in particular, while it does not provide causal information, it can lead to insights that are quite useful. In this case, researchers have discovered that quite innocuous information about soda consumption may be a signal for teenagers that are at risk of acting violently, potentially leading to better directed social service interventions.

If you would like to learn more about research techniques to investigate correlation and causation, check out Correlation Does Not Imply Causation.

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