A more active friend can make you less sedentary

A newly developed mathematical model incorporates the influence of social interactions on community exercise trends, suggesting that interacting with moderately active people could influence sedentary people to become more active.

In 2018, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published evidence-based guidelines outlining recommended types and amounts of physical activity to promote health benefits for different populations of Americans. However, national population-level trends suggest that there has been little improvement in meeting these recommendations.

To help address this issue, Mema and colleagues drew on previous research showing that social interactions with peers can play a key role in boosting physical activity within a community. In line with that knowledge, they developed a mathematical model that simulates how social interactions can affect a population's exercise trends over time. The model incorporates data from the U.S. Military Academy.

The model simulations showed that, in the absence of social interactions, populations experienced a long-term decrease in physically active individuals, and sedentary behavior began to dominate. However, when the simulations included social interactions between sedentary and moderately active people, sedentary populations became more physically active in the long term. Still, in simulations where moderately active people became more sedentary over time, overall physical activity trends plummeted.

Reference:

Mema E, Spain ES, Martin CK, Hill JO, Sayer RD, McInvale HD, et al. (2022) Social influences on physical activity for establishing criteria leading to exercise persistence. PLoS ONE 17(10): e0274259. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274259