Using Behavioural Economics for More Sustainable Physical Activity mHealth Incentives: the Caterpillar App

March 6, 2023 updated by: Marc Mitchell, Western University, Canada

Applying Behavioural Economics for More Sustainable Physical Activity Incentives: A 12-week Pilot Feasibility Trial of the Caterpillar App in Leeds, UK

This 12-week study aims to test a sustainable incentive-based physical activity app program that may lower the size of incentive needed to stimulate physical activity and drive incentive costs down. Following the 5-day starting assessment (baseline) period, participants will be able to earn incentives in the form of loyalty points when they reach their daily step goals set by the Caterpillar app. Over the course of the 12-week study period, users will be rewarded for reaching their step goals through three different incentive programs in 30 day intervals: Month 1 (users will earn daily rewards of 3¢ per day upon achieving personalized daily step goal); Month 2 (users will earn weekly rewards (25¢ per week goal met 5+ times); Month 3 (users will earn team-based rewards (35¢ per week if 10+ goals are reached collaboratively with another user).

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Anticipated)

5000

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 Contact

Study Locations

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 and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • For iPhone users, only those with the 5S model or higher (device compatibility)
  • Android smartphone users can also participate if their device supported step counting (i.e., has an accelerometer), but they are required to download the equivalent of Health Kit (e.g., the Google Fit application) first (this is an app, not study, related requirement).
  • Over 18 years old

Exclusion Criteria:

- Caterpillar users who do not agree to the privacy agreement.

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: Financial Health Incentives
fter registration on the Caterpillar App, participants will be instructed to 'carry their phone' as much as possible during a 5-day baseline period to assess their daily step counts. In Month 1, participants will earn daily rewards (3¢ per day personalized daily step goal met; BE "present bias"). In Month 2, users will earn weekly rewards (25¢ per week goal met 5+ times; BE "fresh start"). In Month 3, users will earn team-based rewards (35¢ per week if 10+ goals are reached collaboratively with someone they know e.g., friend; BE "herd mentality"). Participants are expected to earn $1.25 CAD (or 0.75 British pounds) over the course of the 12-week intervention (about $5/person/yr). Rather than offer daily incentives indefinitely, Caterpillar will offer daily incentives as a temporary feature-moving to larger, less frequent, less certain (team-based) incentives as PA becomes habitual.
Behavioral: Financial Health Incentives
After registration on the Caterpillar App, participants will be instructed to 'carry their phone' as much as possible during a 5-day baseline period to assess their daily step counts. In Month 1, participants will earn daily rewards (3¢ per day personalized daily step goal met; BE "present bias"). In Month 2, users will earn weekly rewards (25¢ per week goal met 5+ times; BE "fresh start"). In Month 3, users will earn team-based rewards (35¢ per week if 10+ goals are reached collaboratively with someone they know e.g., friend; BE "herd mentality"). Participants are expected to earn $1.25 CAD (or 0.75 British pounds) over the course of the 12-week intervention (about $5/person/yr). Rather than offer daily incentives indefinitely, Caterpillar will offer daily incentives as a temporary feature-moving to larger, less frequent, less certain (team-based) incentives as PA becomes habitual.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
App Uptake: Number of Downloads Each Week
Time Frame: 12 weeks
Total number of Caterpillar app downloads off the App Store or Google Play
12 weeks
App Uptake: proportion of daily active users per week
Time Frame: 12 weeks
number of users opening the app daily vs. number of total users
12 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Intervention effectiveness: Change in mean daily step count
Time Frame: 12 weeks
measured by smartphone accelerometer
12 weeks
Intervention effectiveness: change in mean weekly minutes of moderate-vigorous intensity physical activity
Time Frame: 12 weeks
measured by smartphone accelerometer
12 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Western University, Canada

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)

September 8, 2022

Primary Completion (Anticipated)

August 4, 2023

Study Completion (Anticipated)

December 1, 2023

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 10, 2022

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 22, 2022

First Posted (Actual)

March 24, 2022

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 8, 2023

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 6, 2023

Last Verified

March 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 120615

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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