The BWH Wellness Project (B-Well)

Mass General Brigham

Status: Completed

Conditions: Physical Activity

Treatments: Behavioral: Financial Bonuses

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02850094

2014P000970

Details and patient eligibility

About

The investigators propose a 24 week program to provide proof-of-principle evidence that financial incentives stimulate Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) employees to be more physically active.

Full description

Participants wear a Fitbit Flex accelerometer for at least six months. During the first two weeks, they are paid simply for wearing the Fitbit. After that, they are regularly paid for either meeting CDC guidelines for moderate physical activity (PA) or increasing their PA by at least 10% from the preceding week. Moderate PA is defined as walking for at least 100 steps per minute for at least 10 minutes at a time. One minute of vigorous PA, over 175 steps/minute, counts as two minutes of moderate PA.

In addition to weekly bonuses, there are also bonuses for achieving all goals in 1 month, 3 month, and 6 month intervals. In cases where all three team members received a bonus, their bonuses are doubled. Individuals also fill out weekly questionnaires about their work attendance, as well as longer questionnaires at baseline, three months, and six months.

Enrollment: 292 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 21+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Brigham and Women's Hospital employee
• Reported less than 30 minutes of exercise per week
• Use a computer daily at work or home
• Willing to wear a pedometer, undergo health screening, and complete occasional questionnaires

Exclusion criteria

• Occupation: Physician, nurse or other clinician
• Self-reported pregnancy at baseline

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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292 participants in 1 patient group

Financial Bonuses

Experimental group

Description:

For two weeks following enrollment, subjects are monitored via their FitBit accelerometer to monitor their pre-intervention physical activity levels. For a twenty-four week period following the observational period, participants are eligible for financial bonuses based on their increased activity. Participants enroll as teams and are eligible for additional financial bonuses based on their team's performance.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Financial Bonuses