Online Support Drives Britons To Improve Their Health

Main Category: Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness
Also Included In: IT / Internet / E-mail
Article Date: 26 Apr 2009 - 0:00 PST

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As the number of people with obesity rises Britons are turning to the web for help in making positive changes to their health, reports Bupa, the health and care company.

Since its launch in January, over 200,000 people have visited Bupa's free online health check website, equating to one person every twenty seconds. The health check provides a personalised picture of an individual's health based on their medical and lifestyle risks in just twenty minutes.

Bupa has surveyed over 3,000 users of the service and found that almost three in every four (71 percent) have been prompted to make a positive change to their lives, while over two thirds (70 percent) say they plan to continue to use the site in future, updating their health information to monitor how the positive steps they are taking are impacting their wellbeing.

Dr Peter Mace, assistant medical director at Bupa Wellness, comments: "Over a third of all visitors are now using the site to monitor their health and track how positive changes they are making, inspired by their initial health check, are benefiting their health. The health check is packed with medical advice, health information and easy to follow fact sheets providing easy to access and effective expert support to help people take action improve their health."

The site has attracted attention across the world with significant visitor traffic from the United States, Spain and France. Visitors receive instant feedback on their health based on a traffic light (red, amber, green) system covering their diet, fitness and stress as well as the impact of their lifestyle on a number of key diseases including breast, bowel and lung cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

Source
Bupa

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