Physical Activity and Social-media Support (PASS)

This study is a 3-arm randomized intervention to provide exercise education through Instagram. The primary outcome is trust in the content presented.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Trust
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Influencer Instagram account; Behavioral: Research study Instagram account

Detailed Description

Social media is an interpersonal-level technology that can provide physical activity support through social support and behavioral education. One popular social media platform is Instagram. However, there is limited data on whether participants trust the content delivered through this platform. There is also limited information on whether the social-media account holder plays a role in the acceptance of the content. The purpose of the proposed study is to determine participants perceptions of physical activity related information and social media account. The design for this study is a 3-arm randomized intervention through Instagram. Participants (n=60) will be randomized to one of three Instagram accounts (control, student, and scientist). Recruitment will be on a rolling basis for 2 months; once participants are deemed eligible, they will be enrolled for 4-weeks and will receive a weekly questionnaire to determine their perceptions. Participants will also be encouraged to participate in follow-up questionnaires at 2 and 3 months.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 14
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • California
    • Pomona, California, United States, 91768
      • California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• 18 years and older
• less than 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise per week
• active Instagram account

Exclusion Criteria:

• physical activity is inadvisable based on the PAR-Q+

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Sham Comparator: Control; Participants randomized to this group will follow a public Instagram account. This account was chosen because they have a strong following (over 600,000 followers) and it is a public account that anyone can follow. The content shared on this page is motivational and community driven. There is a focus of healthy living with an emphasis on exercise. Additionally, there are no paid sponsorships or radical exercise advice, which is common on other influencer pages. The Co-PIs determined that this page accurately represents the exercise-related content that is readily available on Instagram. The research team will not have control over the content of this account, but the account holder will be notified about the study.	Behavioral: Influencer Instagram account; Participants randomized to this group will follow a public Instagram account. This account was chosen because they have a strong following (over 600,000 followers) and it is a public account that anyone can follow. The content shared on this page is motivational and community driven. There is a focus of healthy living with an emphasis on exercise. Additionally, there are no paid sponsorships or radical exercise advice, which is common on other influencer pages. The Co-PIs determined that this page accurately represents the exercise-related content that is readily available on Instagram. The research team will not have control over the content of this account, but the account holder will be notified about the study.
Experimental: Student; Student Co-PI will manage this Instagram account created for the study. Although the student is a Kinesiology student and works within the health field, she will not disclose this information on the account. Instead, she will present herself as a general college student. By withholding her major and career aspirations, we hope to get unbiased feedback on what participants think about the content being presented. The content presented will be identical to study arm #3.	Behavioral: Research study Instagram account; Intervention arms will deliver the same exercise-related content on the same schedule on the intervention Instagram accounts. The arms will deliver 13-weeks worth of content which goes through the last possible day of the intervention. The structure was based on feedback from stakeholders in a formative focus group. All of the content delivered through the accounts is evidence-based and referenced from reputation organizations/agencies such as the American College of Sports Medicine, American Heart Association, Center for Disease Control, and World Health Organization. Each Co-PI will post videos to answer participant questions. To ensure that the content between both groups is the same, the Co-PIs will meet to determine which questions to answer and draft the response.
Experimental: Scientist; The PI will manage this Instagram account created for the study. The PI is a certified exercise physiologist and holds a PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences. She will disclose this information on the account. This group is the study's "gold standard" because it will provide evidence-based content delivered by an exercise scientist.	Behavioral: Research study Instagram account; Intervention arms will deliver the same exercise-related content on the same schedule on the intervention Instagram accounts. The arms will deliver 13-weeks worth of content which goes through the last possible day of the intervention. The structure was based on feedback from stakeholders in a formative focus group. All of the content delivered through the accounts is evidence-based and referenced from reputation organizations/agencies such as the American College of Sports Medicine, American Heart Association, Center for Disease Control, and World Health Organization. Each Co-PI will post videos to answer participant questions. To ensure that the content between both groups is the same, the Co-PIs will meet to determine which questions to answer and draft the response.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Self-reported trust in Instagram content assessed with a likert scale	Participant trust in the content presented on the Instagram account using a 10-point scale where 1 is low trust and 10 is high trust	4-weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Physical activity measured by the IPAQ	self-reported total physical activity MET*minutes/week	4-weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Publications and helpful links

Helpful Links

• The Protocol and Feasibility Results of a Preliminary Instagram-Based Physical Activity Promotion Study

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): March 1, 2021
• Primary Completion (Actual): April 23, 2021
• Study Completion (Actual): June 29, 2021

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 29, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 4, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): February 8, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 28, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 26, 2023
• Last Verified: July 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: physical activity; exercise; social media
• Other Study ID Numbers: IRB-21-8

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