Way to Health, Healthy Measures

August 24, 2016 updated by: University of Pennsylvania

Financial Incentives for Home-based Health Management: A Pilot Randomized Trial

The primary objective of the study is to assess the effect of financial incentives on the use of home health monitoring devices among high-risk patients. In addition, there are three secondary objectives: (1) obtain preliminary evidence regarding whether the monetary value of incentives has a differential effect on the use of home health monitoring devices; (2) identify potential barriers that prohibit regular use of home-based health devices using qualitative data; and (3) assess the usability of a newly developed web portal and its feasibility for future randomized clinical trials aimed at changing health-related behaviors.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

While home monitoring of health appears to be a promising frontier in health care, patient adherence to, and utilization of, such devices is often low, limiting the potential benefit of this technology. Financial incentives have been effective in increasing rates of weight loss, smoking cessation, and medication adherence and therefore may increase rates of utilization of home-based health monitoring devices. Therefore, in this study, we test the effects of lottery-based incentives on use of home-based health monitoring technologies.

The aim of this pilot randomized controlled trial is to evaluate whether financial incentives delivered through a novel online platform can effectively increase use of home-based health monitoring technology among overweight adults with diabetes. Our primary objective is to assess the effects of financial incentives on the use of home health monitoring devices among high-risk patients. In addition, we have three secondary objectives: (1) obtain preliminary evidence regarding whether the monetary value of incentives has a differential effect on the use of home health monitoring devices; (2) identify potential barriers that prohibit regular use of home-based health devices using qualitative data; and (3) assess the usability of a newly developed web portal and its feasibility for future randomized clinical trials aimed at changing health-related behaviors.

Participants will be randomized into each of the following three arms: (1) Financial Incentive Group I; (2) Financial Incentive Group II; (3) Control Group. Incentives for Financial Groups I and II are designed in a way that builds on the success of previous incentive-based interventions for weight loss. Both lotteries are tailored to provide infrequent large payoffs and frequent small payoffs since lottery players are motivated by both the possibility of a large reward and the opportunity for regular, immediate rewards. The average expected payoff value of Financial Incentive Group I will be $2.80 per day and $1.40 per day in Financial Incentive Group II. The interventions will run for 91 days starting at randomization. At the end of the intervention time period, each participant will be notified that the intervention period has ended and the 90-day follow-up period has begun. During the follow-up period each participant will continue to upload measurements daily, but will not receive incentives or reminders.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

75

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Pennsylvania
      • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19104
        • University of Pennsylvania

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 80 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Adults between 18 and 80 years of age
  • Hemoglobin A1c measured in the last six weeks greater than or equal to 7.5%
  • Weight less than 425lbs
  • Cell phone with text messaging capabilities or email access
  • Followed by Primary Care Provider at Penn Internal Medicine Associates practice at 3701 Market St

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Lack or are unwilling to use email or cell phone for text messaging
  • Are enrolled in other, ongoing clinical trials
  • Suffer from an uncontrolled psychiatric disease
  • Have a history or diagnosis of heart failure as confirmed by ICD-9 codes: 428.0 (congestive heart failure), 425.0 (cardiomyopathy), and 414.8 ischemic cardiomyopathy)

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Active Control
Daily use of three home-monitoring devices: glucometer, blood pressure cuff and scale for 6 months
Experimental: Financial Incentive Group I
Daily use of three home-monitoring devices: glucometer, blood pressure cuff and scale for 3 months. If all three devices used daily, participant entered in lottery with 1 in 100 odds of winning $100 and 2 in 10 odds of winning $10. Financial incentive terminated after 3 months. Daily use of devices continues for additional 3 months. (Intervention involves the daily lottery itself along with feedback via email or text messaging to participants about the lottery results and whether or not they were included based on device adherence.)
Behavioral: Financial Incentive Group I
Lottery with 1 in 100 odds of $100 and 18 in 100 odds of $10. The intervention involves the daily lottery itself along with feedback via email or text messaging to participants about the lottery results and whether or not they were included based on device adherence.
Experimental: Financial Incentives Group II
Daily use of three home-monitoring devices: glucometer, blood pressure cuff and scale for 3 months. If all three devices used daily, participant entered in lottery with 1 in 100 odds of winning $50 and 2 in 10 odds of winning $5. Financial incentive terminated after 3 months. Daily use of devices continues for additional 3 months. (Intervention involves the daily lottery itself along with feedback via email or text messaging to participants about the lottery results and whether or not they were included based on device adherence.)
Behavioral: Financial Incentive Group II
Lottery with 1 in 100 odds of $50 and 18 in 100 odds of $5. The intervention involves the daily lottery itself along with feedback via email or text messaging to participants about the lottery results and whether or not they were included based on device adherence.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Rate of use of the three home-based technologies
Time Frame: 3-months
We will analyze the proportion of days that home monitoring was completed (defined as successful reporting of data from all three devices - weight, blood pressure and blood sugar) compared to failure to report across all groups after the end of the 3-month intervention period.
3-months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Usability and functionality of the study's online web portal, Way to Health, and wifi-enabled home health monitoring devices
Time Frame: 6-months
We will ask participants to participate in a qualitative interview at the final study visit to assess the usability and functionality of the web portal and study devices for use during future studies.
6-months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Pennsylvania

Collaborators

National Institute on Aging (NIA)

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

February 1, 2011

Primary Completion (Actual)

August 1, 2012

Study Completion (Actual)

August 1, 2012

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 10, 2011

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 21, 2011

First Posted (Estimate)

January 25, 2011

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

August 25, 2016

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 24, 2016

Last Verified

August 1, 2016

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 812211
  • RC2AG036592 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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