Effects of Streak-Based Versus Tally-Based Feedback on Daily Lesson Completion During a 30-Day Digital Health Challenge (Streaks)

The study will test two interventions for increasing engagement with a target behavior, delivered via a digital web application that participants can access using their phones or computers. For example, in the streak group, users would see how many consecutive days they have completed daily lessons and will be encouraged to extend their streak. In the tally group, participants will see how many cumulative days they have completed daily lessons and will be encouraged to extend their tally.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Preventive Health Care
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Interventions for increasing engagement with a target behavior

Detailed Description

The objective of this study is to determine whether tracking people's streak of behavior increases their engagement in that behavior. To test this, the investigators are designing a web application that participants can access daily using their phones or computers. Our previous work suggests that streaks may be useful in motivating people to be more productive. In this study, the investigators change how the investigators operationalize streaks and test streaks in a field context. Because most previous streak research is on how others perceive someone who has a streak, this work is novel because it examines how encouraging someone to achieve and keep a streak affects behavior in a field context. The study will test two interventions for increasing engagement with a target behavior, delivered via a digital web application that participants can access using their phones or computers. For example, in the streak group, users would see how many consecutive days they have completed daily lessons and will be encouraged to extend their streak. In the tally group, participants will see how many cumulative days they have completed daily lessons and will be encouraged to extend their tally. The investigators are interested in whether people complete more daily lessons when a 30-day health challenge app provides daily feedback on their consecutive lessons (each comprising two multiple-choice questions) completed (i.e., "streaks") vs. when it provides feedback on their cumulative lessons completed (i.e., "tallies").

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 7004
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Pennsylvania
    • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19104
      • University of Pennsylvania

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Our target population is 18 and older adults in the United States who have a valid U.S. phone number and who are willing to make an account on our web application for use during the duration of the study.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Children under 18 years of age and adults without a valid U.S. phone number

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Tally; In the tally group, participants will see how many cumulative days they have completed daily lessons and will be encouraged to extend their tally.	Behavioral: Interventions for increasing engagement with a target behavior; The study will test two interventions for increasing engagement with a target behavior, delivered via a digital web application that participants can access using their phones or computers. For example, in the streak group, participants would see how many consecutive days they have completed daily lessons and will be encouraged to extend their streak. In the tally group, participants will see how many cumulative days they have completed daily lessons and will be encouraged to extend their tally. The investigators are interested in whether people complete more daily lessons when a 30-day health challenge app provides daily feedback on their consecutive lessons (each comprising two multiple-choice questions) completed (i.e., "streaks") vs. when it provides feedback on their cumulative lessons completed (i.e., "tallies").
Experimental: Streaks; In the streak group, participants would see how many consecutive days they have completed daily lessons and will be encouraged to extend their streak	Behavioral: Interventions for increasing engagement with a target behavior; The study will test two interventions for increasing engagement with a target behavior, delivered via a digital web application that participants can access using their phones or computers. For example, in the streak group, participants would see how many consecutive days they have completed daily lessons and will be encouraged to extend their streak. In the tally group, participants will see how many cumulative days they have completed daily lessons and will be encouraged to extend their tally. The investigators are interested in whether people complete more daily lessons when a 30-day health challenge app provides daily feedback on their consecutive lessons (each comprising two multiple-choice questions) completed (i.e., "streaks") vs. when it provides feedback on their cumulative lessons completed (i.e., "tallies").

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Total number of lessons completed	The key dependent variable is a person's total number of lessons completed during the 30-day Health Daily program. Participants can only complete a given day's lesson on that day; a lesson is only considered complete if both questions that comprise the lesson are answered.	30 days

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 23, 2025
• Primary Completion (Actual): January 21, 2026
• Study Completion (Actual): January 21, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: October 21, 2025
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 21, 2025
• First Posted (Actual): October 23, 2025

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 3, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 2, 2026
• Last Verified: February 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Behavioral Science; Field Experiment; Streaks
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Investigative Techniques; Methods
• Other Study ID Numbers: DBSR-11288; P30AG034546-16 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: Unique ID; Condition assignment; Response for the first quiz question for each day; Response for the second quiz question for each day; Date; Female indicator (taken from generize.io); Correct response for the first quiz question; Correct response for the second quiz question
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: Individual participant data and all supporting materials will become available upon publication of the primary study manuscript and will remain accessible indefinitely thereafter.
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Individual participant data and all supporting materials will be made openly available through the Open Science Framework (OSF) to any interested party without access restrictions.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; SAP; ICF; ANALYTIC_CODE

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No