Seventy-eight boys, aged 11 to 18 years old, participated in this study. Some were randomly assigned to wear pedometers and receive weekly text messages encouraging them to get moving. Others received standard care.
On average, the teens reported 11,000 steps per day at the start of the study.
But it appears the novelty of the pedometers quickly wore off.
Over the course of the study, 37 percent of the participants stopped wearing them, and their daily step count had declined by about 800 steps.
The teens' blood-sugar levels, body mass and blood pressure also remained virtually the same.
The study is in the journal Diabetes Care.
