A Randomized-controlled Trial of Social Norm Interventions to Increase Physical Activity

University of California, Merced

Status: Completed

Conditions: Physical Activity

Treatments: Behavioral: Descriptive Social Norm; Behavioral: Descriptive-plus-Injunctive Social Norm

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02710201

UCM13-00012

Details and patient eligibility

About

Objective: Physical activity confers numerous health benefits, yet few adults meet recommended physical activity guidelines. The impact of brief messages providing feedback on physical activity was tested in this study. Methods: Young adults were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) feedback on how active others were, (2) feedback on how active others were plus a message of approval or disapproval depending on whether the participant was more or less active than average, or (3) no feedback (control condition). Participants used pedometers for eight weekdays and recorded their step counts each evening. The group receiving feedback on how active others were got information about the average number of steps taken by group members the previous day. The group that also received approval or disapproval received feedback about the group average, as well as a sad face if the participant was below the average or a happy face if the participant was above the average. The control group received no feedback throughout the study. Impacts of these feedback messages were compared on number of steps taken during the study.

Enrollment: 111 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Age 18 or older

Exclusion criteria

• Answering yes to any questions on the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Factorial Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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111 participants in 3 patient groups

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

No feedback on progress of other participants.

Descriptive Social Norm

Experimental group

Description:

Average physical activity of other participants in study conveyed to this group.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Descriptive Social Norm

Descriptive-plus-Injunctive Social Norm

Experimental group

Description:

Average physical activity of other participants in study and message of approval or disapproval (depending on how one is faring compared to others) conveyed to this group.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Descriptive-plus-Injunctive Social Norm