Professor Niall Moyna and Dr. Sarah Kelly
Irish Life (the parent company of Irish Life Health) is one of Ireland’s leading financial services companies with over 1 million customers. Irish Life Health provides innovative health insurance plans to over 430,000 members.
The “Move Your MET” Workplace Fitness Challenge targets the Irish workforce, encouraging Ireland’s 1.9 million employees to improve their fitness. This innovative programme was developed by Irish Life Health in conjunction with Prof. Niall Moyna and Dr. Sarah Kelly from DCU’s School of Health and Human Performance.
Companies of all sizes are encouraged to participate, with each employee anonymously measuring and recording their fitness level using the “Move Your MET” app. Over the course of 6 weeks, employees receive educational tips about how to increase physical activity during the working day. The winning companies were those with the largest improvements in fitness and those with the fittest employees overall.
The “Move Your MET” smartphone app, designed by Prof. Moyna and Dr. Kelly, is the first app to allow individuals to measure and track their own aerobic fitness levels. The app also tracks body mass index. Data anonymously gathered through the app is collated to select the winning companies. This initiative has been a huge success with over 220 companies participating and 50,000 downloads.
The Workplace Fitness Challenge is the second successful fitness initiative coordinated by Irish Life Health, Prof. Moyna and Dr. Kelly. The Schools Fitness Challenge, was created in 2013 and to date over 120,000 secondary school children have completed the challenge. Like the Schools Fitness Challenge, “The Workplace Fitness Challenge” is set to become an annual event in the corporate calendar.
The free “Move Your MET” app has helped establish Irish Life Health as an innovator in the health and wellness field using technology to incentivise and empower individuals to maintain a healthy and more active lifestyle.
The DCU Invent team have supported the project from its inception.
Underpinning funding sources include: Irish Life Health
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