Effects of Streak-Based Versus Tally-Based Feedback on Daily Lesson Completion During a 30-Day Digital Health Challenge

NCT07220044 | Completed

• 2 other identifiers: DBSR-11288P30AG034546-16
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 7,004
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The study will test two interventions for increasing engagement with a target behavior, delivered via a digital web application that participants can access using their phones or computers. For example, in the streak group, users would see how many consecutive days they have completed daily lessons and will be encouraged to extend their streak. In the tally group, participants will see how many cumulative days they have completed daily lessons and will be encouraged to extend their tally.

Conditions

Preventive Health Care

Keywords

Behavioral Science; Field Experiment; Streaks

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Total number of lessons completed

  The key dependent variable is a person's total number of lessons completed during the 30-day Health Daily program. Participants can only complete a given day's lesson on that day; a lesson is only considered complete if both questions that comprise the lesson are answered.

  30 days

Study Arms (2)

Streaks

EXPERIMENTAL

In the streak group, participants would see how many consecutive days they have completed daily lessons and will be encouraged to extend their streak

Behavioral: Interventions for increasing engagement with a target behavior

Tally

EXPERIMENTAL

In the tally group, participants will see how many cumulative days they have completed daily lessons and will be encouraged to extend their tally.

Behavioral: Interventions for increasing engagement with a target behavior

Interventions

Interventions for increasing engagement with a target behavior BEHAVIORAL

The study will test two interventions for increasing engagement with a target behavior, delivered via a digital web application that participants can access using their phones or computers. For example, in the streak group, participants would see how many consecutive days they have completed daily lessons and will be encouraged to extend their streak. In the tally group, participants will see how many cumulative days they have completed daily lessons and will be encouraged to extend their tally. The investigators are interested in whether people complete more daily lessons when a 30-day health challenge app provides daily feedback on their consecutive lessons (each comprising two multiple-choice questions) completed (i.e., "streaks") vs. when it provides feedback on their cumulative lessons completed (i.e., "tallies").

Streaks; Tally

Eligibility Criteria

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

You may qualify if:

• Our target population is 18 and older adults in the United States who have a valid U.S. phone number and who are willing to make an account on our web application for use during the duration of the study.

You may not qualify if:

• Children under 18 years of age and adults without a valid U.S. phone number

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Pennsylvania: lead
• National Institute on Aging (NIA): collaborator

Study Sites (1)

University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19104, United States

Location

MeSH Terms

Interventions

Methods

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Investigative Techniques

Study Design

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

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: October 21, 2025
• First Posted: October 23, 2025
• Study Start: September 23, 2025
• Primary Completion: January 21, 2026
• Study Completion: January 21, 2026
• Last Updated: February 3, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-02

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL, SAP, ICF, ANALYTIC CODE
• Time Frame: Individual participant data and all supporting materials will become available upon publication of the primary study manuscript and will remain accessible indefinitely thereafter.
• Access Criteria: Individual participant data and all supporting materials will be made openly available through the Open Science Framework (OSF) to any interested party without access restrictions.

Locations

US (1)