NCT03124563

Planning the Next Steps: Using an Implementation Intention Approach to Increase Daily Walking

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 63 (actual)
• Sponsor: Brandeis University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 35 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The study goal is to design an intervention utilizing implementation intentions to help participants prospectively plan and visualize ways to increase activity for the next day among working adults who do not currently exercise or use an activity monitor. Investigators will assess the level of and changes in physical activity, and how this relates to various individual factors that are related to exercise and health, including self-efficacy, control beliefs, and cognition.

Detailed description

The 5-week study consists of a 1-week baseline, where participants are asked to wear a Fitbit to document the number of steps taken that day to establish an objective measurement of steps before the intervention began. In the intervention condition, after the baseline week, during weeks 2 to 5, this condition is prompted with an email each evening for four weeks to review their schedules for the following day and identify time slots where they could add activity. They are given instructions for providing a detailed calendar of appointments and open slots for the next day using a simple daily planner. The planning implementation intention manipulation involves recording specific information about when, where, and how they will add steps to their day. They are provided with maps near their home and work with specific information about distances, estimated time to walk between different points, and number of steps for specific routes to help them in planning for specific routes.The control condition is matched for how much contact they have with the research staff (called and emailed the same amount of times) and also wear the Fitbit daily. The only difference from the intervention group is that they do not get the daily planning instructions or maps for the implementation intention strategy treatment. All activity data from the Fitbit was deidentified and aggregated with an online platform called Fitabase.

Conditions

• Sedentary Lifestyle
• Self Efficacy
• Control Locus

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Control Group	Participants will wear a Fitbit Zip for 5 weeks to record their daily activity data. The first week of the study will provide a baseline measurement of activity. After this week, participants in this condition will begin receiving daily emails asking them to report their step count in a questionnaire. Participants in the control group will be matched with the intervention group for how much contact they have with the researcher.
BEHAVIORAL	Implementation Intention Condition	Participants will wear a Fitbit Zip for 5 weeks to record their daily activity data. The first week of the study will provide a baseline measurement of activity. After this week, participants will be asked to increase their steps incrementally by 2,000 steps each week for the subsequent four weeks. To help achieve their step goals, they will receive maps of different routes near their home and/or work of varying distances and step counts. They will be asked to review their schedule for the next day and identify times when they could add steps into their schedules, and to record their daily step data in the daily questionnaire.

Timeline

• Start date: 2015-06-01
• Primary completion: 2016-10-01
• Completion: 2016-10-01
• First posted: 2017-04-24
• Last updated: 2019-01-14
• Results posted: 2019-01-14