Project Step: Evaluating Deposit Contracts and Daily Feedback to Promote Walking in Overweight and Obese Adults

June 20, 2018 updated by: Stephanie Kerrigan, Drexel University
The purpose of this study is to test whether deposit contracts, wherein individuals invest their own money with the study to serve as the incentive, with or without daily feedback about progress help individuals to increase step counts and more often meet a step goal compared to self-monitoring only.

Study Overview

Detailed Description

Approximately 68% of adults are overweight or obese, which is associated with increased risk for health conditions, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer. These individuals are more often sedentary than the general population, which compounds the risk for these same conditions. While the benefits of engaging in physical activity are well-established, few individuals are able to successfully increase activity to recommended levels. Existing intervention programs, often derived from theories such as social cognitive theory or related theories, have had limited success. Behavioral economics offers a promising alternative, suggesting that engagement in any behavior is based on the maximizing utility and happiness. Interventions based on this theory aim to increase the immediate benefit of engaging in physical activity, often using a financial incentive.

This study will last for 16 weeks. Each participant will invest $42 with the study, and be exposed to to each of three interventions. All participants will have the use of a FitBit for ongoing self-monitoring and a step-count goal of 10,000 steps per day. In one condition, these will be the only interventions you receive. In one condition, you will receive a monetary consequence for meeting or not meeting the goal. Each day during the incentive conditions, you will be eligible to lose $0.75 of your own money for not meeting the goal, or to earn back $0.75 of your money plus $0.75 from the study (i.e., a total of $1.50) for meeting the goal. In the third condition, you will have daily feedback mid-afternoon about your distance from the goal and the money you stand to gain or lose. You will be made aware of what condition you are in.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

24

Phase

  • Not Applicable

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

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • 25 kg/m2 ≤ BMI ≤ 45 kg/m2
  • Age 18-70
  • Currently inactive (engages in less than 6,000 steps/day on at least 4 of 7 days per week, confirmed by FitBit at baseline)
  • Able to engage in moderate amount of walking
  • Able to receive email/text messages from study staff

Exclusion Criteria:

- medical or psychiatric conditions that would make it difficult to comply with study protocols

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: Treatment
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Single-arm trial
All participants will undergo each of three conditions during the study.
Participants will have access to a wrist-worn activity monitor and have a daily step goal
Participants will have a deposit contract, wherein they will lose money if a goal is not reached, or double their money if a goal is reached
Participants will receive text message feedback each day about progress towards their goal

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Step counts
Time Frame: Throughout 16-week study, measured as the average of each two-week block (i.e., each time condition changes)
Daily number of steps taken
Throughout 16-week study, measured as the average of each two-week block (i.e., each time condition changes)
Goal attainment
Time Frame: Throughout 16-week study, measured as the average of each two-week block (i.e., each time condition changes)
Proportion of days step goal was met
Throughout 16-week study, measured as the average of each two-week block (i.e., each time condition changes)

Collaborators and Investigators

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

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.

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 (Actual)

December 1, 2016

Primary Completion (Actual)

August 1, 2017

Study Completion (Actual)

August 8, 2017

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 12, 2018

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 20, 2018

First Posted (Actual)

June 25, 2018

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

June 25, 2018

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 20, 2018

Last Verified

June 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 1601004185-1

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

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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