Incentives for Physical Activity for Older Adults

NCT05948709 | Terminated

• 2 other identifiers: 805439P30AG024968
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 70
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 2

Brief Summary

Inactivity is the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality, leading to chronic diseases. Much of the world's population is inactive, and older adults are at highest risk. Incentive-based interventions show promise for improving activity levels. The investigators propose to conduct a study to evaluate the impact of incentives on physical activity of older adults (55 and above). Half the participants will receive additional incentives for walking throughout the study. Their step count and physical/mental health will be compared to a control group. The investigators will track the physical activity of participants using Fitbits and will encourage physical activity through making meal donations on behalf of participants (prosocial incentives) and giving them gift cards that can be redeemed at local businesses (personal incentives). Physical and mental health before and after the study will also be assessed using a written survey.

Conditions

Physical Activity

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Change in step count

  Indicator of change in physical activity, recorded daily using Fitabase and averaged across a week. A baseline step count at the beginning of the study will be compared to the step count at the end of the study.

  Week 1 and week 6.

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Change in CES-D (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale) Score

  Week 1 and week 6.

Study Arms (2)

Treatment

EXPERIMENTAL

Fitabase collects data from Fitbits worn by the participants. Under the treatment functionality, participants earn a meal donation for each day that they meet the step goal and a monetary incentive for each day they meet the step goal (for upto 5 days a week). The investigators identified 7,500 steps as an appropriate goal as studies show older adults walk 4,000 steps on average. Meals are donated by the investigators on behalf of participants.

Other: Incentives for Physical Activity

Control

NO INTERVENTION

The control group will not have the functionality to earn meal donations or monetary incentives by walking, and will only be asked to wear their Fitbit so that step count data can be collected.

Interventions

Incentives for Physical Activity OTHER

Participants earn a meal donation and monetary incentives for each day that they reach 7,500 steps. Meals are donated by the investigators on behalf of participants.

Treatment

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 55 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• years old or older
• own a smartphone
• can walk independently
• how often they walked outside their home or yard for fun or exercise in the past week - Never, Seldom (1-2 days), Sometimes (3-4 days), or Often (5-7 days)? They can participate if they respond never or seldom.

You may not qualify if:

• below 55 years
• do not own a smartphone
• unable to walk independently
• how often they walked outside their home or yard for fun or exercise in the past week
• Never, Seldom (1-2 days), Sometimes (3-4 days), or Often (5-7 days)? They can not participate if they respond sometimes or often.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of California, San Diego: lead
• National Institute on Aging (NIA): collaborator
• University of Southern California: collaborator

Study Sites (2)

Northgate Market Barrio Logan

San Diego, California, 92113, United States

Location

Northgate Market National City

San Diego, California, 92113, United States

Location

Related Publications (20)

• Watson KB, Carlson SA, Gunn JP, Galuska DA, O'Connor A, Greenlund KJ, Fulton JE. Physical Inactivity Among Adults Aged 50 Years and Older - United States, 2014. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2016 Sep 16;65(36):954-8. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm6536a3.

  PMID: 27632143 BACKGROUND

• Thaler, R., Mental accounting and consumer choice. Marketing science, 1985. 4(3): p. 199-214.

  BACKGROUND

• Cunningham C, O' Sullivan R, Caserotti P, Tully MA. Consequences of physical inactivity in older adults: A systematic review of reviews and meta-analyses. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2020 May;30(5):816-827. doi: 10.1111/sms.13616. Epub 2020 Feb 4.

  PMID: 32020713 BACKGROUND

• de Rezende LF, Rey-Lopez JP, Matsudo VK, do Carmo Luiz O. Sedentary behavior and health outcomes among older adults: a systematic review. BMC Public Health. 2014 Apr 9;14:333. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-14-333.

  PMID: 24712381 BACKGROUND

• Bherer L, Erickson KI, Liu-Ambrose T. A review of the effects of physical activity and exercise on cognitive and brain functions in older adults. J Aging Res. 2013;2013:657508. doi: 10.1155/2013/657508. Epub 2013 Sep 11.

  PMID: 24102028 BACKGROUND

• Carlson SA, Fulton JE, Pratt M, Yang Z, Adams EK. Inadequate physical activity and health care expenditures in the United States. Prog Cardiovasc Dis. 2015 Jan-Feb;57(4):315-23. doi: 10.1016/j.pcad.2014.08.002. Epub 2014 Aug 9.

  PMID: 25559060 BACKGROUND

• Schneider EL, Guralnik JM. The aging of America. Impact on health care costs. JAMA. 1990 May 2;263(17):2335-40.

  PMID: 2109105 BACKGROUND

• Charness, G. and U. Gneezy, Incentives to exercise. Econometrica, 2009. 77(3): p. 909-931.

  BACKGROUND

• Volpp KG, John LK, Troxel AB, Norton L, Fassbender J, Loewenstein G. Financial incentive-based approaches for weight loss: a randomized trial. JAMA. 2008 Dec 10;300(22):2631-7. doi: 10.1001/jama.2008.804.

  PMID: 19066383 BACKGROUND

• Tambor M, Pavlova M, Golinowska S, Arsenijevic J, Groot W. Financial incentives for a healthy life style and disease prevention among older people: a systematic literature review. BMC Health Serv Res. 2016 Sep 5;16 Suppl 5(Suppl 5):426. doi: 10.1186/s12913-016-1517-0.

  PMID: 27608973 BACKGROUND

• Mantzari E, Vogt F, Shemilt I, Wei Y, Higgins JP, Marteau TM. Personal financial incentives for changing habitual health-related behaviors: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Prev Med. 2015 Jun;75:75-85. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2015.03.001. Epub 2015 Apr 2.

  PMID: 25843244 BACKGROUND

• Gneezy, U., S. Meier, and P. Rey-Biel, When and why incentives (don't) work to modify behavior. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2011. 25(4): p. 191-209.

  BACKGROUND

• Deci, E.L., Effects of externally mediated rewards on intrinsic motivation. Journal of personality and Social Psychology, 1971. 18(1): p. 105.

  BACKGROUND

• Marcel Bilger, E.F., Uri Gneezy, Ho Teck Hua, Increasing the Effectiveness of Incentives by Changing Their Meaning: A Mental Accounting Mechanism for Behavior Change. Work in progress., 2017.

  BACKGROUND

• Bassett DR Jr, Wyatt HR, Thompson H, Peters JC, Hill JO. Pedometer-measured physical activity and health behaviors in U.S. adults. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2010 Oct;42(10):1819-25. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e3181dc2e54.

  PMID: 20305579 BACKGROUND

• Fonda, S. and A.R. Herzog, Documentation of physical functioning measured in the Health and Retirement Study and the Asset and Health Dynamics among the Oldest Old Study. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Survey Research Center, 2004.

  BACKGROUND

• Steffick, D.E., Documentation of affective functioning measures in the Health and Retirement Study. Ann Arbor, MI: HRS Health Working Group, 2000.

  BACKGROUND

• Sadoff S, Samek A, & C Sprenger. Dynamic Inconsistency in Food Choice: Experimental Evidence from Two Food Deserts. The Review of Economic Studies, 2020. 87(4): p. 1954-1988.

  BACKGROUND

• Pew Research Center: Internet, Science, & Tech. Demographics of Mobile Device Ownership and Adoption in the United States. 2021, Pew Research Center.

  BACKGROUND

• Mahlo L, Windsor TD. Feasibility, Acceptability, and Preliminary Efficacy of an App-Based Mindfulness-Meditation Program Among Older Adults. Gerontologist. 2021 Jul 13;61(5):775-786. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnaa093.

  PMID: 32663286 BACKGROUND

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Motor Activity

Interventions

Exercise

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Behavior

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Motor Activity; Movement; Musculoskeletal Physiological Phenomena; Musculoskeletal and Neural Physiological Phenomena

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: OTHER
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Associate Professor of Economics and Strategy

Model Details: The investigators will recruit 200 older adults and randomize half of them to receive additional incentives. The other half will not receive additional incentives. The investigators will track step count of these two groups for 6 weeks using Fitbits and Fitabase software.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: March 28, 2023
• First Posted: July 17, 2023
• Study Start: November 3, 2023
• Primary Completion: November 18, 2024
• Study Completion: November 18, 2024
• Last Updated: December 27, 2024

Record last verified: 2024-12

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

US (2)