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Social marketing is surely a good motivator for people, in almost all respects. This tool, apparently, can also be helpful in motivating people to participate and indulge in regular physical activity, a new study has found.  

The new research from the University of Bristol published in the journal BMC Public Health, and lead by researchers from the University's Centre for Exercise, Nutrition and Health Services, aimed at testing how effective social marketing techniques could be, in maximizing participation in physical activity in a low-income area.

The six-month social marketing campaign was designed to offer a new physical activity programme entitled 'Fit and Fab'-comprising five different sessions, each delivered once a week, medical Xpress reported.

For the promotion of the physical activity session, the researchers used techniques such as outdoor banners, street leafleting, leaflet distribution via schools, community groups, a poster campaign, local press, two taster sessions, a loyalty scheme, campaign blog and a text campaign, the report said.

Next, the data on how many people were recruited for the programme, how many participated, number of drop-outs etc was collected by the researchers over the six-month period in the intervention.

The findings of the study showed that there was much higher recruitment and attendance in the intervention sessions compared to pre-existing and control area sessions in the first, fifth and sixth month.

Statistically, in the first month, an average of 38.83 people attended each intervention session compared to 7.17 in pre-existing sessions and 4.67 in the control area.

"Good levels of physical activity are important for the prevention of a range of chronic diseases. These conditions are more prevalent in low-income areas where physical activity levels are consistently lower. The public health benefits of increasing physical activity in this group are clear. Although there have been previous initiatives to target those who took little exercise, our findings indicate a more cost-efficient and effective way of getting people to take part in longer-term physical activity programmes," Janet Withall, the study's lead researcher from the University's Centre for Exercise, Nutrition and Health Sciences in the School for Policy Studies was quoted as saying by Medical Xpress.