Healthy messages printed in local places may encourage people to take the stairs instead of the elevator and even descend the stairs later, according to a team of British researchers.
The results shown that messages such as "Take the Stairs" or "Seven Minutes of Stair Climbing Daily Protects Your Heart" increased stair climbing by 190 percent, according to Frank Eves of the University of Birmingham and his colleague, Oliver Webb at the Kingston University .
Experts also studied other ways to make people take the stairs. They considered artwork hung by the steps or music in office stairwells as good ways to encourage stair climbing. The researchers collected data from almost 82,000 people that passed in a shopping mall in England in over six weeks.
First, researchers printed a colorful design on a target staircase but this did not attract too many climbers. Later, they added a healthy message to the design. The results showed a significant growth in the traffic on the target stairs.
Actually, the researchers also reported a twenty-five percent increase in people traveling down the stairs. However, on long term, people may start to ignore the message, so the long-term effect is still uncertain, according to Sandra Ham at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Regular stair climbing may help you burn considering calories, according to a previous study lead by Eves. For instance, a 175- pound man who climbs home stairs eight times per day may burn the equivalent of the calorie intake of four days per year.
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