Way to Be Active IV (Framing vs Incentives)

University of Pennsylvania

Status: Completed

Conditions: Sedentary Lifestyle

Treatments: Behavioral: Financial incentives; Behavioral: Teams; Behavioral: Framing of feedback; Behavioral: Daily Feedback

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT02030080

819371

Details and patient eligibility

About

Employers are increasingly looking for opportunities to motivate sedentary employees to become more physically active. Workplace walking programs have had mixed success and typically show most improvement among participants that are already fairly active at a baseline. The goal of this study is to determine whether a financial incentive program can motivate sedentary employees to increase the number of steps they walk per day to meet a minimum threshold.

The primary outcome measure is the proportion of days a minimum activity of 7000 steps or more is achieved. Outcomes will be assessed each week for 3 months using incentives followed by 3 months of follow-up without incentives. Secondary outcomes will include the average steps walked per day.

Enrollment: 288 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 100 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Age greater than 18.
• Participant will need an iPhone or Android smartphone to be able to use the Moves App for tracking steps

Exclusion criteria

• Pregnant or lactating
• Currently participating in another physical activity study

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

---

288 participants in 4 patient groups

Feedback 50th Percentile

Active Comparator group

Description:

At the end of each week, participants will be told the average daily step count for their team for the previous week. They will also be told the average for the 50th percentile in their arm.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Teams

Behavioral: Daily Feedback

Feedback 75th Percentile

Experimental group

Description:

At the end of each week, participants will be told the average daily step count for their team for the previous week. They will also be told the average for the 75th percentile in their arm.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Framing of feedback

Behavioral: Teams

Behavioral: Daily Feedback

Feedback 50th Percentile + Lottery

Experimental group

Description:

At the end of each week, participants will be told the average daily step count for their team for the previous week. They will also be told the average for the 50th percentile in their arm. If their team's average daily step count is ≥ 7000 steps, they'll be eligible to collect winnings from a weekly lottery. Teams whose average daily step count is less than 7000 will receive messages about how much they would have won had the team met its goal.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Financial incentives

Behavioral: Teams

Behavioral: Daily Feedback

Feedback 75th Percentile + Lottery

Experimental group

Description:

At the end of each week, participants will be told the average daily step count for their team for the previous week. They will also be told the average for the 75th percentile in their arm. If their team's average daily step count is ≥ 7000 steps, they'll be eligible to collect winnings from a weekly lottery. Teams whose average daily step count is less than 7000 will receive messages about how much they would have won had the team met its goal.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Framing of feedback

Behavioral: Financial incentives

Behavioral: Teams

Behavioral: Daily Feedback