STEP Together: An Effectiveness-Implementation Study of Social Incentives and Physical Activity

Abramson Cancer Center at Penn Medicine

Status: Completed

Conditions: Physical Activity

Treatments: Behavioral: Daily Performance Feedback; Behavioral: Social Incentive Gamification; Behavioral: Social Goals through Incentives to Charity

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT04942535

02022

842677

1R01HL152430 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

Higher levels of physical activity have been demonstrated to improve health across a wide range of contexts and reduce cognitive decline as adults become older, but more than half of all adults in the United States do not meet their physical activity goals. One type of physical activity that is broadly applicable to people of all ages is walking. This study will use a Hybrid Type 1 effectiveness-implementation design to adapt and test the effectiveness of two successful social incentive-based interventions, a gamification strategy and financial incentives donated to charity on the participants behalf, to increase physical activity among low-income, mostly minority families in community settings.

Enrollment: 779 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 14+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Able to read and speak English;
• Has a smartphone or tablet;
• Lives in the Philadelphia area;
• Age 14 or older;
• Able to provide informed consent;
• Enrolled as a member of a 2 to 10 member family team with least one member 60 years or older.

Exclusion criteria

• Already participating in another physical activity study;
• An 18-month physical activity program is infeasible (e.g., metastatic cancer, unable to ambulate or provide informed consent) or unsafe (currently pregnant or told by a physician not to exercise);
• Do not have sufficient eyesight or dexterity to operate device;
• Average step count greater than 7,500 steps/day during the run-in period.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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779 participants in 3 patient groups

Social Incentive Gamification

Experimental group

Description:

Each participant is enrolled as part of a family team. Each participant wears a Fitbit every day and strives to achieve their daily step goal. Participants in this arm receive the Social Incentive Gamification intervention during the 12 month intervention and Daily Performance Feedback during the 6 month follow up.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Social Incentive Gamification

Behavioral: Daily Performance Feedback

Social Goals through Incentives to Charity

Experimental group

Description:

Each participant is enrolled as part of a family team. Each participant wears a Fitbit every day and strives to achieve their daily step goal. Participants in this arm receive the Social Goals through Incentives to Charity intervention during the 12 month intervention and Daily Performance Feedback during the 6 month follow up.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Social Goals through Incentives to Charity

Behavioral: Daily Performance Feedback

Control

Active Comparator group

Description:

Each participant is enrolled as part of a family team. Each participant wears a Fitbit every day and strives to achieve their daily step goal. Participants in this arm receive Daily Performance Feedback during the 12 month intervention and 6 month follow up.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Daily Performance Feedback