NCT01855776

A Randomized Trial of Economic Incentives to Promote Walking Among Full Time Employees

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 800 (actual)
• Sponsor: Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 21 Years – 65 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This study aims to assess the uptake, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of a scalable walking programme for full-time employees both with and without incentives.

Detailed description

The first part of this study comprises an in-home face-to-face survey with 950 full-time employees in Singapore. The survey aims to identify what an optimal programme might look like and to quantify the potential uptake of the programme, if offered. Stated preference conjoint analysis, which assesses individual preferences for attributes of specific programmes, will be used. The second part of this study is a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) of a 12-month walking programme. Up to 800 full-time employees will be recruited and allocated to one of four research arms: Control Group, Programme Only Group, Cash Incentive Group and Charitable Incentive Group. Participants in the intervention arms will be asked to track their physical activities using Fitbit Zip, a wireless pedometer, which automatically uploads the data to a custom website. Those in the incentive arms will earn money or raise money for charities if they meet weekly exercise targets. Those in the control and Programme Only groups with receive a weekly payment for participation. Incentives and participation payment will be provided from months 1 - 6, after which they will be withdrawn. The key outcome variable of the RCT is defined as bouts (in minutes) of moderate to vigorous physical activity ("MVPA bouts") as measured via accelerometry. Data will be collected at baseline and month 6 and 12 assessments. Findings from the RCT will also be used to determine the cost to employers of implementing each programme and the incremental cost-effectiveness of the incentive programmes compared to the basic programme without incentives. The primary hypotheses are that the basic programme will have lower costs per person than the cash or charity programmes, but that the incentive programmes will be more cost-effective relative to the less expensive and less effective basic programme.

Conditions

• Physical Activity

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	Fitbit	Fitbit Zip is a wireless pedometer that tracks steps of participants, and will be offered in conjunction with a tailored website with customized information for participants, employers, and/or charities.
BEHAVIORAL	Cash Incentives	Incentives will be awarded to participants for meeting specified weekly step goals as measured by a pedometer.
BEHAVIORAL	Charitable Incentives	Incentives will be awarded to charities selected by participants should the latter meet specified weekly step goals measured by a pedometer.
OTHER	Usual Care	The "usual care" programme consists of educational materials designed by the Singapore Health Promotion Board. It includes material on how to stay active, walking programmes, and healthy eating.

Timeline

• Start date: 2013-05-01
• Primary completion: 2015-08-01
• Completion: 2015-08-01
• First posted: 2013-05-16
• Last updated: 2016-01-05

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Singapore