Using Implementation Intentions to Self-incentivise Weight-loss

University of Manchester

Status: Completed

Conditions: Overweight

Treatments: Behavioral: Self-generated self-incentivising implementation intentions; Behavioral: Single self-incentivising implementation intention; Behavioral: Multiple self-incentivising implementation intentions

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03522727

Davids/Coulthard_1

Details and patient eligibility

About

The aim of the present research is to test the effect of helping people to reward themselves when they have successfully lost weight and the impact this will have on subsequent weight. Each participant will be randomly allocated to one of four conditions. The trial requires 200 participants to perform a fully powered statistical analysis. The four conditions are: (1) a control condition, (2) intervention 1 (form a single self-incentivising implementation intention from a drop-down menu), (3) intervention 2 (form multiple self-incentivising implementation intentions from a drop-down menu), or (4) intervention 3 (asked to form a single self-incentivising implementation intention of their own devising). The main outcome measure will be BMI, which will be self-reported.

Enrollment: 79 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 100 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Aged 18+

Exclusion criteria

• Unable or unwilling to complete questionnaire

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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79 participants in 4 patient groups

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants will be asked to complete a questionnaire.

Intervention 1

Experimental group

Description:

Single self-incentivising implementation intention After completing a questionnaire, participants will be asked to form a self-incentivising implementation intention: Research shows that rewarding yourself for success can help you to lose weight, but that people often forget to reward themselves. We want you to plan to reward yourself if you achieve your personal weight-loss goal, at the end of 4 weeks. To help you do this, we would like you to complete the following sentence by telling us how you will reward yourself. Please complete the following sentence with a reward of your own choosing. If I lose at least ___lbs/kg by the end of 4 weeks, then I will reward myself by... \*\*Drop down menu\*\* Learning a new skill...

Treatment:

Behavioral: Single self-incentivising implementation intention

Intervention 2

Experimental group

Description:

Multiple self-incentivising implementation intentions After completing a questionnaire, participants will be asked to form self-incentivising implementation intentions: Research shows that rewarding yourself for success can help you to lose weight, but that people often forget to reward themselves. We want you to plan to reward yourself if you achieve your personal weight-loss goal, at the end of 4 weeks. To help you do this, we would like you to complete the following sentence by telling us how you will reward yourself. You can choose as many rewards as you like! Please complete the following sentence with a reward of your own choosing. If I lose at least ___lbs/kg by the end of 4 weeks, then I will reward myself by... and/or... \*\*Drop down menu\*\* Learning a new skill...

Treatment:

Behavioral: Multiple self-incentivising implementation intentions

Intervention 3

Experimental group

Description:

Self-generated self-incentivising implementation intentions After completing a questionnaire, participants will be asked to form a self-incentivising implementation intention: Research shows that rewarding yourself for success can help you to lose weight, but that people often forget to reward themselves. We want you to plan to reward yourself if you achieve your personal weight-loss goal, at the end of 4 weeks. To help you do this, we would like you to complete the following sentence by telling us how you will reward yourself. Please complete the following sentence with a reward of your own choosing. If I lose at least ___lbs/kg by the end of 4 weeks, then I will reward myself by...

Treatment:

Behavioral: Self-generated self-incentivising implementation intentions