The EARN-Health Trial of Financial Savings and Health

NCT ID: NCT02185612

Last Updated: 2021-09-28

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 678 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2016-10-31
• Study Completion Date: 2018-04-13

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.

Detailed Description

The investigators plan to conduct an RCT comparing participants in the new EARN program against wait-listed control subjects. The program provides low-wage workers with incentives and rewards for savings. The program involves a web-based platform that permits eligible savers to create a centralized savings account, which is a secure online account without fees. The account offers eligible savers small monetary rewards for dollars saved each month. The investigators plan to conduct a baseline online month 0 survey and a follow-up 6 month and 12 month online survey among participants and wait-listed nonparticipants, with telephone follow-up to maximize 6- and 12-month survey completion. The surveys consist of previously-validated instruments to assess key health behaviors self-reported well-being, and require approximately 20 minutes each. The surveys includes the CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System scales for assessing demographics and income, overall self-rated health, tobacco and alcohol use, depression and anxiety symptoms, and optimism and locus of control. Participants will receive prorated a gift card for each survey, to compensate participants for their time while avoiding a direct income effect of a cash incentive for participation.

Conditions

Depression; Anxiety; Alcohol Abuse; Tobacco Abuse

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: PREVENTION
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

Control

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.

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Savings program

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.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Savings program

Intervention Type: 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.

Interventions

Savings program

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.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

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

Exclusion Criteria

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

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

Stanford University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Sanjay Basu, MD. PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Stanford University

Locations

Stanford University

Stanford, California, United States

Countries

United States

References

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.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

PMID: 26443663 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

30641

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id