Way to Be Active I (Teams)

A Randomized Trial of Behavioral Economic Interventions to Improve Physical Activities: Team Incentives

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.

Our primary outcome measure is the proportion of days a minimum activity of 7000 steps or more is achieved. We will assess outcomes 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.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Sedentary Employees
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Individual Incentives; Behavioral: Team Incentives; Behavioral: Individual plus Team Incentives

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 304
• Phase: Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 100 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• 1. We will use a minimum age of 18 to ensure all individuals are legally able to consent.
• 2. Participant will need an iPhone or Android smartphone to be able to use the Moves App for tracking steps

Exclusion Criteria:

• Conditions that would make participation infeasible: 1a. Inability to consent 1b. Illiteracy and/or inability to speak, read, and write English 1c. Participation in another research study 2. Conditions that would make participation unsafe: 2a. Current treatment for drug or alcohol use 2b. Consumption of at least 5 alcoholic drinks per day 2c. Myocardial infarction or stroke within the past 6 months 2d. Current addiction to prescription medicines or street drugs 2e. Serious psychiatric diagnoses (e.g., severe major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia) 2f. Pregnant or currently breastfeeding 2g. Metastatic cancer 2h. Unstable medical conditions that would likely prevent the participant from completing the study

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

4

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control; Participants receive either an email or text message daily (based on the participant's preference) stating whether the participant achieved the 7000 step goal during the previous day. Each participant will also be notified as to how many of their teammates reached the goal the previous day. Control Arm will receive no financial incentive.
Experimental: Individual; Participants receive either an email or text message daily (based on the participant's preference) stating whether the participant achieved the 7000 step goal during the previous day. Each participant will also be notified as to how many of their teammates reached the goal the previous day. Every day one team from the arm will be chosen at random as the winning team. Each participant on the winning team receives $50 if that participant met the step goal during the prior day.	Behavioral: Individual Incentives
Experimental: Team; Participants receive either an email or text message daily (based on the participant's preference) stating whether the participant achieved the 7000 step goal during the previous day. Each participant will also be notified as to how many of their teammates reached the goal the previous day. Every day one team from the arm will be chosen at random as the winning team. Each participant on the winning team receives $50 only if all four team members met the step goal during the prior day.	Behavioral: Team Incentives
Experimental: Individual Plus Team; Participants receive either an email or text message daily (based on the participant's preference) stating whether the participant achieved the 7000 step goal during the previous day. Each participant will also be notified as to how many of their teammates reached the goal the previous day. Every day one team from the arm will be chosen at random as the winning team. Each participant on the winning team receives $20 if the participant met the step goal during the prior day the participants met their own goal. Each participant will also receive an additional $10 for every one of the other three team members that also met the goal.	Behavioral: Individual plus Team Incentives

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Proportion of Days a Minimum Activity of 7000 Steps or More is Achieved	Our primary outcome measure is the proportion of days a minimum activity of 7000 steps or more is achieved. We will assess outcomes for 3 months (13 weeks) with the interventions and 3 months (13 weeks) without intervention during the follow-up period. We will use all available data and treat missing as true missing data points. Secondary outcomes will include the average steps walked per day.	End of study- 6 months of after enrollment

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Average Number of Steps Per Day During Intervention	Secondary outcomes include average number of steps per day during intervention period and the follow-up period.	End of study- 6 months after enrollment

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Pennsylvania
• Collaborators: National Institute on Aging (NIA)

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Patel MS, Asch DA, Rosin R, Small DS, Bellamy SL, Eberbach K, Walters KJ, Haff N, Lee SM, Wesby L, Hoffer K, Shuttleworth D, Taylor DH, Hilbert V, Zhu J, Yang L, Wang X, Volpp KG. Individual Versus Team-Based Financial Incentives to Increase Physical Activity: A Randomized, Controlled Trial. J Gen Intern Med. 2016 Jul;31(7):746-54. doi: 10.1007/s11606-016-3627-0. Epub 2016 Mar 14.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: February 1, 2014
• Primary Completion (Actual): September 1, 2014
• Study Completion (Actual): September 1, 2014

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 27, 2013
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 27, 2013
• First Posted (Estimate): December 4, 2013

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 5, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 11, 2019
• Last Verified: February 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Sedentary; Financial Incentives; Workplace Wellness; Behavioral Economic Intervention; Team Studies; Team Incentives
• Other Study ID Numbers: 819101