The EARN-Health Trial of Financial Savings and Health

NCT02185612 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 30641
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 678
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The current literature in social epidemiology and public health suggests that low financial savings has an unsurprising negative relationship with subjective well-being, and increases the odds of making visits to a healthcare provider, receiving a chronic disease diagnosis, and experiencing medical disability. Earn.org is a community-based non-profit based in San Francisco with a mission to help low-income workers build lifelong savings habits and financial capability. The organization is one of the largest providers of "goal-based savings accounts" or "matched savings accounts" in the US. The investigators propose to conduct a randomized controlled trial to determine the health effects of Earn's savings program. Through this trial, the investigators will test three principal hypotheses: (1) Participants in the Earn account, as compared to a control group, are hypothesized to demonstrate improved scores on mental health scales assessing depression and anxiety. (2) Participants in the Earn account, as compared to a control group, are hypothesized to experience lower odds of harmful behaviors associated with stress, specifically tobacco and alcohol abuse. The investigators hypothesize that the effect on behaviors will be of smaller effect size, and more delayed, than the effect on mental health outcomes, judging from similar effects observed in the micro-credit literature. (3) The mediating variables between Earn account participation and beneficial health outcomes will include increased optimism and internal locus of control.

Conditions

Depression; Anxiety; Alcohol Abuse; Tobacco Abuse

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Self-rated health scales

  The following survey measures of self-rated health are taken from the validated CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Study and will be recorded and reported from our study: H0) Would you say that in general your health, as compared to other people your age, is…? \[ Excellent Very good Good Fair OR Poor \] H1) Please think about your physical health. This includes physical illness and injury. How many days during the past 30 days was your physical health not good? \[Number from 0 to 30\] H2) Now please think about your emotional health. This includes stress, depression, and anxiety. How many days during the past 30 days was your emotional health not good? \[Number from 0 to 30\] H3) During the past 30 days, for about how many days did poor physical or emotional health keep you from doing your usual activities, such as self-care, work, or recreation? \[Number from 0 to 30\]

  12 months

Secondary Outcomes (6)

• Depression and anxiety symptoms: yes/no questions

  12 months

• Alcohol abuse screening questions

  12 months

• Tobacco abuse screening questions

  12 months

• Locus of control Likert scales

  12 months

• Optimism Likert scales

  12 months

Study Arms (2)

Control

NO INTERVENTION

Participants will be randomized to a 1 year wait list. Participants take 0 month, 6 month, and 12 month surveys on depression, anxiety, alcohol and tobacco use, locus of control, and overall self-rated health.

Savings program

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants will be randomized to the EARN.org online savings program for 6 months. Participants take 0 month, 6 month, and 12 month surveys on depression, anxiety, alcohol and tobacco use, locus of control, and overall self-rated health.

Behavioral: Savings program

Interventions

Savings program BEHAVIORAL

The intervention is a web-based centralized savings account, which is a secure online account without fees. The account offers eligible savers nominal financial rewards for each deposit they make, as a financial incentive for savings.

Savings program

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• English-speaking US residents
• ages 18 and older
• below 50% of the area median income
• have a regular Internet connection

You may not qualify if:

• non-English speakers
• non-US residents
• children,
• history of or current enrollment in other incentivized savings programs

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Stanford University: lead

Study Sites (1)

Stanford University

Stanford, California, 94305, United States

Location

Related Publications (1)

• Basu S, Hamad R, White JS, Modrek S, Rehkopf DH, Cullen MR. The EARN-Health Trial: protocol for a randomised controlled trial to identify health effects of a financial savings programme among low-income US adults. BMJ Open. 2015 Oct 6;5(10):e009366. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2015-009366.

  PMID: 26443663 BACKGROUND

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Depression; Anxiety Disorders; Alcoholism; Tobacco Use Disorder

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Behavioral Symptoms; Behavior; Mental Disorders; Alcohol-Related Disorders; Substance-Related Disorders; Chemically-Induced Disorders

Study Officials

• Sanjay Basu, MD. PhD

  Stanford University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: INVESTIGATOR
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: July 2, 2014
• First Posted: July 9, 2014
• Study Start: October 1, 2016
• Primary Completion: April 13, 2018
• Study Completion: April 13, 2018
• Last Updated: September 28, 2021

Record last verified: 2021-09

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

US (1)