Brigham and Women's Healthy Weight Study

Harvard Pilgrim Health Care

Status: Completed

Conditions: Obesity

Treatments: Behavioral: Deposit Contract

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02709642

1K23HL111211-03

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to determine if a financial deposit contract is a successful method of helping people to maintain their weight loss. A deposit contract is an agreement in which participants put their own money at risk, with the goal of "earning" it back by achieving a goal, in this case maintaining prior weight loss. The study will also evaluate the interventions using survey research to assess the feasibility and acceptability of the interventions.

Full description

Interested participants who can verify >10lb weight-loss over the last year and a half will be randomly assigned to either the control group, in which they will be asked to attend weekly weigh-ins at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) over the course of a year, or to the deposit contract intervention group. Both the control group and the deposit contract group will complete the weekly weigh-ins for one year. The deposit contract group will additionally have a financial component: these participants will be asked to make a deposit of at least $100 each 10-week period over the course of one year (50 weeks), and can recoup this amount as detailed above. All participants will take baseline and end-of-study surveys.

During an enrollment meeting, study staff will request via an authorization form that participants allow approved members of the research staff to examine their electronic medical record for the duration of the study if they receive their care at a BWH-affiliated practice. This will confirm their >10lb weight loss.

At the end of every 10-week period, DC participants will receive an email with how much money they recouped. Participants who did not recoup the full amount they deposited must bring in a check to the following weigh-in to cover the difference so that participants have at least $100 deposited for the following 10-week period. Additionally, participants will have the option to use their initial study baseline weight, or be re-weighed for a new baseline weight for the following 10-week period, for which they will then use as their target weight. They will also have the option to increase or decrease their deposit for the upcoming 10-week period as needed.

Each subject may skip non-consecutive weigh-ins without losing their weekly contribution. However, if subjects skip two or more consecutive weekly weigh-ins, participants may only recoup up to one of those skipped weigh-ins if they are successful in their weight management in the week that they return for a weigh-in. Skipped weigh-ins will not roll over into a new 10-week period.

Enrollment: 42 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• employee of Brigham and Women's Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), Brigham and Women's Physicians Organization (BWPO), or Partners working at the Francis Street complex of Brigham and Women's Hospital (either part-time or full-time)
• 18 years of age or older
• successfully and intentionally lost at least 10lbs within the past 18 months
• had a BMI over 25 at some point over the previous 18 months

Exclusion criteria

• plan to change jobs outside of the BWH Francis Street complex in the next year
• had weight-loss surgery in the past 3 years
• currently on a very low calorie (800 or fewer calories) liquid diet or taking weight loss medicine
• currently have cancer, a severe psychiatric disorder, an eating disorder, or another severe medical illness that may affect weight beyond control
• plan to become pregnant in the next year

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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42 participants in 2 patient groups

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Control Participants will complete weekly weigh-ins and receive emails about how their current weight compares to their baseline weight.

Deposit Contract

Experimental group

Description:

The deposit contract group will also complete weekly weigh-ins and receive emails about how their current weight compares to their baseline weight. In addition, the deposit contract group will be asked to make a deposit of at least $100 each 10-week period over the course of one year (50 weeks). Each week, they will recoup 1/10 of their 10-week deposit if they are within two pounds of their baseline weight or lower. If they are more than two pounds above their baseline weight, they will forfeit 1/10 of their 10-week deposit. The money they forfeited for that week will go into a collective pool to be divided up at the end of each 10-week period by all deposit contract participants who successfully maintained their weight loss at the end of the 10-week period.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Deposit Contract