NCT02638675

Financial Health Incentives to Promote Physical Activity Among Hospital Employees: A Randomized Control Trial

Examining Financial Health Incentives to Promote Physical Activity Among Inactive Hospital Employees: A Web-based Randomized Control Trial

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 99 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Toronto · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The objective of this randomized control trial is to examine whether incentives-for-steps (i.e. $1 per day step count goals are reached) increase daily step counts among physically inactive hospital employees.

Detailed description

A 24-week, parallel arm, randomized control trial will be employed to examine the impact of incentives on physical activity among physically inactive Hamilton Health Science Corporation employees. Participants will be randomly allocated (1:1) into control (i.e. wellness program and accelerometer) or intervention groups (i.e. wellness program, accelerometer, incentives), where only intervention participants will receive reward points for completing daily step count goals. After randomization, a baseline 'run-in' assessment phase will occur one week prior to the study intervention (T0). During this 'run-in' period, participants will wear a Bluetooth enabled StepsCount Piezo accelerometer, which will track participants' daily steps and moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA), and synchronize their accelerometer (i.e. upload information) to the Change4Life program for seven days. Participants will also be asked to complete the Behavioural Regulation to Exercise Questionnaire (BREQ-3) and the Self-Efficacy for Exercise Scale. Throughout the 24-week study, all participants will be asked to wear the accelerometer and synchronize it to the Change4Life program daily. Date, steps per day, and bout minutes of MVPA per day (bouts include 10 or more continuous minutes of MVPA) will be collected when the accelerometer is synchronized. Daily synchronization from the accelerometer to the Change4Life program must be completed by 10 am the next morning. Participants will be instructed to increase their daily step counts by 1,000 and 2,000 steps above baseline (T0) over the course of the first six weeks of the study. On week 7, participants will be asked to increase daily steps per day to 3,000 over baseline, and maintain that level of activity for the duration of the study. Outcome measures will be assessed at baseline (T0), intervention end point (T2), and follow up (T3).

Conditions

• Physically Inactive Hospital Employees

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Wellness program	All participants have access to Change4Life, a web-based health education and behaviour change program. Individuals are rewarded with very modest incentives (uncertain chance; less than 1 in 100 chance of earning) when they complete learning modules or health tasks.
DEVICE	Accelerometer	All participants will be asked to wear the StepsCount Piezo accelerometer, which tracks steps and bout minutes of MVPA per day, synchronize the device to the Change4Life program, and reach daily step count goals for 24 weeks.
BEHAVIORAL	Incentive	During the first 12 weeks, participants will be eligible to earn $1 in vouchers (e.g., grocery, cinema) when daily goals are reached. The total amount available over the 3-month intervention period will be $90 (9,000 points). During weeks 13 to 24, participants will not receive daily reward points for completing step count goals.

Timeline

• Start date: 2017-02-06
• Primary completion: 2017-11-30
• Completion: 2017-11-30
• First posted: 2015-12-23
• Last updated: 2018-05-11

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Canada