UPHS Weight Loss Study

May 4, 2015 updated by: University of Pennsylvania

UPHS Weight Loss Study: Evaluating Methods to Use Health Benefits Design to Encourage Employee Weight Loss

The goal of this study is to compare a novel approach using financial incentives to changes in health benefit design and their impact on employee weight loss.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Employers are increasingly looking for opportunities to encourage weight loss among employees. While studies have shown that financial incentives can effectively encourage weight loss, little is known about their use in health benefits design. The goal of this study is to determine whether a financial incentive program delivered to obese University of Pennsylvania Health System employees can effectively encourage weight loss when compared to changes in health benefit design.

This is a randomized controlled trial involving financial incentives with four study arms: control, delayed gratification, immediate gratification, and financial incentive with frequent feedback. Participation in this study will last about 12 months.

The primary goal of the study is to test the effects of a novel financial incentive program using a lottery with frequent feedback to normal benefit design structures.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

201

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 70 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Adults age 18-70
  • BMI of 30 or above

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Inability to consent
  • Illiteracy and/or inability to speak, read, and write English
  • Participation in another research study

Conditions that would make participation unsafe:

  • Current treatment for drug or alcohol use
  • Consumption of at least 5 alcoholic drinks per day
  • Myocardial infarction or stroke within the past 6 months
  • Current addiction to prescription medicines or street drugs
  • Serious psychiatric diagnoses (e.g., severe major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia)
  • Pregnant or currently breastfeeding
  • Diabetic and using any medicine besides metformin to control blood glucose
  • Metastatic cancer
  • Unstable medical conditions that would likely prevent the subject from completing the study
  • Previous diagnosis of an eating disorder
  • History of unsafe weight loss behaviors such as binging or the use of laxatives

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: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control Arm
No other financial incentive other than for enrollment, 6-month weigh in, and completion.
Experimental: Delayed gratification
In addition to the standard enrollment, 6-month, and completion incentives, if the subject loses 5% of their initial weight by the end of the study, they will receive an annual discount (distributed across bi-weekly pay periods) for 12 months beginning after the 12-month study ends. Their premium will return to normal price after this 12-month discount ends.
Behavioral: Financial incentive
Experimental: Immediate gratification
In addition to the standard enrollment, 6-month, and completion incentives, the subject will be told that they can weigh in again any time before the study ends when they think they have lost 5% of their initial body weight. If they did meet their 5% goal, they will begin receiving a bi-weekly premium discount during the next pay period for a total duration of 12 months. Subjects that do not meet the 5% cut off during a weigh in are allowed to re-weigh themselves as many times as they like although they are encouraged to do so when they think they have met their target weight. Their premium goes back to normal price after this 12-month discount ends.
Behavioral: Financial incentive
Experimental: Financial incentive with frequent feedback
In addition to the standard enrollment, 6-month, and completion incentives, the subject will be asked to weigh in on the IncentaHEALTH scales everyday they are at work. These subjects will participate in a daily lottery with the possibility of winning the same amount as the discount in Arms 2 and 3 over the course of the study. The subject can choose to select or be designated a two digit number that ranges from 00 to 99. Each day a lottery will be held and the subject will be given a 1% chance of matching both digits or an 18% chance of matching one digit. In order to get the lottery winnings, the subject must meet a weight goal that consistently decreases to accumulate to a 5% weight loss by the 6 month mark. After 6 months, the subject will receive the lottery winnings if they maintain that target weight (initial weight minus 5%) until the end of the 12-month study.
Behavioral: Financial incentive

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Total pounds of weight lost
Time Frame: 12 months
12 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Weight loss of 5% of initial weight
Time Frame: 12 months
12 months

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Improvements in eating and physical activity habits
Time Frame: 12 months
12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

University of Pennsylvania

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

April 1, 2013

Primary Completion (Actual)

April 1, 2015

Study Completion (Actual)

April 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 15, 2013

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 26, 2013

First Posted (Estimate)

February 27, 2013

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

May 6, 2015

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 4, 2015

Last Verified

December 1, 2013

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 817128

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

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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