A programme designed to “nudge” elderly people in Abu Dhabi to exercise more has led some residents to more than triple the time they spend being active each day.
The Forever Fit programme, developed by NYU Abu Dhabi’s Centre for Behavioural Institutional Design (C-BID), has succeeded in encouraging the least active seniors to exercise for an average of 15 minutes a day — three times as much as before.
Developed as part of a collaboration with the Department of Community Development (DCD) in Abu Dhabi, the programme involved the production of an original booklet containing ideas for simple exercises.
We found here an effect which is between 200 per cent and 400 per cent. It’s a really strong effect
Prof Nikos Nikiforakis,
C-BID
The physical booklet was favoured over electronic content as research found a relatively low level of digital literacy among elderly people in Abu Dhabi.
The effectiveness of the programme was measured using randomised controlled trials and, when differences in individual characteristics were accounted for during analysis of the results, the increase in daily exercise among the least active people was even greater — more than four times as much as before the intervention.
“These were people who were previously inactive. People who were not exercising. Before our intervention they were doing less than five minutes per day,” said Prof Nikos Nikiforakis, C-BID’s co-director and principal investigator of the Forever Fit programme.
“I was really very positively surprised. The [academic] literature suggests most nudges have a single-digit impact — between no impact and 9 per cent. We found here an effect which is between 200 per cent and 400 per cent. It’s a really strong effect.”
Nudges, the uses of which were popularised in a 2008 book, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness, are less coercive ways to change behaviour than, for example, changes in taxes or subsidies.
Based on data from other countries on how exercise improves health, the additional minutes of activity among the least active group could increase life expectancy by two years and reduce mortality by 18 per cent.
“Why do I think it’s been successful? I think the reason is because we did a very careful diagnosis of the population we were interested to help,” said Prof Nikiforakis.
Prof Ernesto Reuben, co-principal investigator of C-BID, who helped to design the Forever Fit nudge, suggested the effort that went into this nudge design helped to improve the outcome.
“A lot of nudges which are out there, they’re basically designed with some kind of intuition without doing a careful pre-diagnosis of the problem,” he said.
During a diagnosis stage of the Forever Fit programme, senior adults were asked about their daily lives and habits, which allowed researchers to identify obstacles that reduced their physical activity.
“That allowed us to design a programme, tailor-made to that group, that specifically addresses the causes of physical activity,” Prof Reuben said.
Prof Nikiforakis cautioned that the increase in exercise levels may not be sustained in the long run, but there was no sign during the four-week period when measurements were taken of activity declining.
Among elderly people who exercised more to begin with, increases in physical activity were seen, although these were smaller than among the previously inactive.
Following its success, the Forever Fit Programme is scheduled to be rolled out more widely by DCD, while C-BID is planning to carry out further projects for other public and private-sector organisations.
Also, in November, C-BID will host a conference, Behavioural Policy Design in the Mena Region, that will feature speakers including Cass Sunstein, a professor at Harvard University and co-author of Nudge.
Exercises to control high blood pressure - in pictures
Springtime in a Broken Mirror,
Mario Benedetti, Penguin Modern Classics
At Eternity’s Gate
Director: Julian Schnabel
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Oscar Isaacs, Mads Mikkelsen
Three stars
Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
Where to donate in the UAE
The Emirates Charity Portal
You can donate to several registered charities through a “donation catalogue”. The use of the donation is quite specific, such as buying a fan for a poor family in Niger for Dh130.
The General Authority of Islamic Affairs & Endowments
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Al Noor Special Needs Centre
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Beit Al Khair Society
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Dar Al Ber Society
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Dubai Cares
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Emirates Airline Foundation
Those who travel on Emirates have undoubtedly seen the little donation envelopes in the seat pockets. But the foundation also accepts donations online and in the form of Skywards Miles. Donated miles are used to sponsor travel for doctors, surgeons, engineers and other professionals volunteering on humanitarian missions around the world.
Emirates Red Crescent
On the Emirates Red Crescent website you can choose between 35 different purposes for your donation, such as providing food for fasters, supporting debtors and contributing to a refugee women fund. It also has a list of bank accounts for each donation type.
Gulf for Good
Gulf for Good raises funds for partner charity projects through challenges, like climbing Kilimanjaro and cycling through Thailand. This year’s projects are in partnership with Street Child Nepal, Larchfield Kids, the Foundation for African Empowerment and SOS Children's Villages. Since 2001, the organisation has raised more than $3.5 million (Dh12.8m) in support of over 50 children’s charities.
Noor Dubai Foundation
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum launched the Noor Dubai Foundation a decade ago with the aim of eliminating all forms of preventable blindness globally. You can donate Dh50 to support mobile eye camps by texting the word “Noor” to 4565 (Etisalat) or 4849 (du).
