The Wall Street Journal had a neat infographic on their site yesterday showing viewing habits of people that read their news online.  The use of smartphones and tablets like the iPad are still in the minority, but it’s interesting to see how they are gaining popularity in the morning and evening hours.

incentaHEALTH has noticed this trend and is building more and more content specifically for these portable platforms.  Delivering powerful tools that help people eat better and stay active is a perfect match for the mobile computing world since much of our time is spent on the go.

Read the full story here.

Family cooking together after exercising

The USAToday ran a nice feature on ways to address the issue of rising teen obesity.  Prompted by a recent study in the American Medical Association that found that heavy teens tend to gain even more weight in their 20s.

Part of the answer is to make getting and staying healthy a family event.  Whether we know it or not, children are watching their parents’ eating and exercise habits and modeling that behavior.  With that in mind, parents can choose to fill the house with healthier snack items like easy-to-grab fruits and veggies, and make family walks a regular event.

You can read the full story here.

incentaHEALTH’s patented HEALTHspot kiosk is on display at the 2010 HiMMS Healthcare Technology Forum in Oklahoma City.

You can read more about the event here.

Todd McGuire, COO/CTO of incentaHEALTH, will speak today at the International Conference on Commercial Driver Health and Wellness in Baltimore, MD. The event is being hosted by Transportation Research Board of the National Academies and is being held at the Sheraton Inner Harbor Hotel from November 8-10, 2010.

Under the tagline “Research on the Health and Wellness of Commercial Truck and Bus Drivers,” the conference aims to bring together organizations looking to control health care costs through wellness programs. The conference is being sponsored by Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Mr. McGuire will be giving a talk entitled “The 4 R’s of Wellness: How to avoid the most common wellness program pitfalls & build programs that work ” and will be sharing lessons learned from designing and deploying incentive-based wellness programs in numerous organizations.

You can read more about the event here.

New research by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) projects that one third of our population could have diabetes by the year 2050.

The encouraging part of this story is that nearly all of the spread of diabetes will be of the Type 2 variety, which is largely preventable.  Want to take action now?  Start today by changing your home, work  and community environments in ways that encourage more activity.  Make healthy food options the default choice.  By improving physical activity and healthy eating, we can take steps today to help prevent a crisis a generation from now.

Read more here.

A recent research study conducted by researchers at Cornell and Lehigh universities and  has analyzed the economic impact of obesity.  The findings show obesity’s annual cost of approximately $168B in the United States.

Previous studies found that obese individuals incurred $1,400 in additional medical costs each year.  The new studies put that number at over $2,800.

The study looked at close to 24,000 non-elderly adults over a five year period from 2000 to 2005.  Since the study reported its findings in 2005 dollars, the current-day economic impact is even higher.

Studies such as this one add even more urgency to incentaHEALTH’s mission, which is to help companies reduce their health care costs by helping their employees improve their health.

Read the full story here.

Take a look at this idea for combining exercise with public transportation.

It’s an idea from a company in New Zealand called Shweeb.  It’s still in the early stages, but Google just Google awarded Shweeb $1 million for research and development, so you may be hearing more about it.  For crowded urban environments where riding a bike might not be practical, this could be a fun way to encourage someone to add some physical activity to their day!  Or how about putting this on your corporate campus as a healthy way to help your employees get around?

If you’re curious, the name Shweeb comes from the German word “schweben,” which means to hang, hover or float.

If you’re in Washington D.C. this week, please come visit us a the 5th Annual World Obesity Congress.  incentaHEALTH’s CEO Jack Rule will be presenting on ways to increase employee engagement in corporate wellness.  You can also stop by the incentaHEALTH booth to see a demo of our patented HEALTHspot kisok.

Here are the full conference details.

Here is one of the TV ads that BCBSMN is running.  It’s simple and funny, but it makes a great point.  Even if you’re in the workplace, you can take 30 seconds and move your body!

Today is Bike to Work Day in Colorado.  Here’s a photo of some of the incentaHEALTH riders who took part in this year’s event.  Last year, over 30,000 riders participated.  Based on the crowds out there today, 2010 looks to be another big year!  I can tell you from personal experience that starting your day on the bike (instead of sitting in traffic in your car) is a great way to start your day.  Really clears your head and gives you energy.  And at the end of the day, it’s a perfect way to decompress get all the daily workday demands to loosen their grip on you…until the next day!

You can read more about Bike to Work Day here.

Team incentaHEALTH Enjoys Bike to Work Day