Helping Employees Lose Pounds (HELP)

University of Michigan

Status: Completed

Conditions: Weight Loss

Treatments: Behavioral: Weekly Incentive

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02853877

HUM00107647

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study will evaluate the effectiveness of financial incentives and messaging tailored to individual goals and aspirations to promote and sustain weight loss. This is a 2-arm randomized controlled trial that will recruit eligible employees at a large university to participate in a 3-month weight loss program, followed by a 3-month follow-up period. The primary outcome will be change in autonomous motivation for weight loss.

The study hypothesis is that intervention group participants will have a greater increase in autonomous motivation for weight loss than participants in the control group at 12 weeks.

Enrollment: 62 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 70 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Interested in losing weight
• Body Mass Index between 30 and 40 kg/m2
• Have wireless internet at home
• Have Android or iOS smart device
• Willing to record themselves weighing in on a scale or let a family member record them weighing in on a scale

Exclusion criteria

• Pregnant or lactating, or intending to become pregnant in the next 6 months
• Taking medication (other than metformin) for diabetes to control blood sugar
• Having a serious psychiatric diagnosis, unstable medical conditions or experienced a heart attack or stroke in the past 6 months
• Having a history of drug or alcohol abuse or addiction to prescription medications

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

---

62 participants in 2 patient groups

Weekly Incentive

Experimental group

Description:

Participants in the Weekly Incentive arm will be asked to weigh in each week during a 12 week intervention period. They will receive tailored messages and have an opportunity to win a financial reward each week they meet their weight loss goal. Participants will be asked to complete a final weight measurement at week 24.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Weekly Incentive

Weekly Weigh-In

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants in the Weekly Weigh-In arm will be asked to weigh in each week during a 12 week intervention period. Participants will be asked to complete a final weight measurement at week 24.