NCT06883773

Digital Rewards and Retention in a M-health App

Does Engagement in a Computerized M-Health Intervention Increase With Digital Rewards?

• Status: Not Yet Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 177 (estimated)
• Sponsor: University of Bucharest · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 60 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Attrition and user engagement are two challenges that eHealth interventions struggle with. Attempts to address this have been previously made through gamification, instructional design and using different types of incentives. Overall, any type of reward, be it non-financial or monetary is better than the controls, but the latter usually produce a greater effect. It is also worth mentioning that having an affective value attached to the reward itself is also important to user retention and engagement. Given the ever-increasing interest in cryptocurrency and its current relevance, the present study - a randomized clinical trial with three arms - aims to compare cryptocurrency to non-monetary rewards regarding their effectiveness in reducing attrition and increasing engagement. In order to do this, a mental-health computerized intervention will be developed, in which the users will have to complete several modules, during which time they will be rewarded either with cryptocurrency, sweepstake rewards (e.g., vouchers), or nothing.

Detailed description

Albeit effective, eHealth interventions suffer from very high dropout rates. Finding novel ways in which to maximise user retention and engagement in such settings can be beneficial, and exploring cryptocurrency as a potential reward may be worthwhile, since motivation seems to increase as the reward is perceived as more meaningful by the recipient. The design is experimental, between-subjects, with one independent variable (the type of reward offered) and mental health (e.g., depression, anxiety, stress, and transdiagnostic constructs) as well as engagement and retention outcomes. Thus, three groups will be formed: two in which participants will be enrolled in the modular MOTO intervention and will receive different rewards, and one in which they will not receive any intervention or reward but will be evaluated as part of a waitlist control group. The modular MOTO intervention involves, in addition to the mentioned assessments, the completion of six weekly modules, each focused on specific aspects of mental health and containing exercises that may improve psychological well-being. These modules are automated, requiring no interaction with others (except for communication between participants and research team). Each of these modules contains the following: psychoeducational section(s) that participants must complete; a short test of 5-10 questions after each section to assess understanding of the material; (only for the first two groups); a link where they can obtain their rewards; the exercise corresponding to that module; the evaluation corresponding to that module.

Conditions

• Transdiagnostic Psychopathology
• Attrition
• Engagement
• Depression, Anxiety
• Stress

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Multipurpose Online Tool	The intervention consists of 6 psychoeducational modules, on the Canvas teaching platform. They are automated, requiring no interaction with others (except for communication between participants and the team). Participants go through the psychoeducational modules, then do the corresponding exercise, and then access their rewards (if they belong to the experimental or comparative groups).
OTHER	No intervention	The participants will be assessed but without any intervention

Timeline

• Start date: 2025-03-15
• Primary completion: 2025-06-15
• Completion: 2025-09-01
• First posted: 2025-03-19
• Last updated: 2025-03-19

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Romania