Testing the Efficacy of Pokemon Go for Increasing Physical Activity

NCT ID: NCT03109509

Last Updated: 2017-04-28

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 100 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2016-07-20
• Study Completion Date: 2017-04-01

Brief Summary

Historically, increasing activity was synonymous with exercise; however, it is now thought that even much more modest activity levels (e.g., simply walking) or merely decreasing the proportion of sedentary time may be sufficient to decrease future morbidity and mortality. Some interventions designed to increase activity have shown promise; others have been less successful. But even promising interventions are often difficult to generalize to real-life clinical settings. One barrier to monitoring the effectiveness of interventions has been the lack of availability of accurate, reliable and inexpensive personal activity monitoring equipment. The availability of inexpensive pedometers, and, more recently, low cost triaxial accelerometers, has now made it much easier to monitor activity levels and provide feedback to users. These devices are ideal for capturing activity associated with walking, the most popular and acceptable form of exercise, but only if patients actually wear them. Thus, there is a need to develop pragmatic approaches that encourage patients to not only wear these monitoring devices, but also motivate them to increase their activity.

In recent years, games have been used in a variety of settings to motivate and change behavior. Games not only provide performance feedback to patients, but also provide incentives for achieving goals in a context that is fun, intrinsically rewarding, and easy to understand. Successful games effectively exploit motivating social factors (e.g., competition, peer support, and entertainment) to maintain interest and engage participants. Steps are counted using a commercially available triaxial accelerometer (e.g., a FitBit). Pokemon Go is an augmented reality game that encourages players to go outside to search for Pokemon creatures.

Conditions

Sedentary Lifestyle

Study Design

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

Study Groups

Fitbit-only Group

Participants randomized to the FB group were provided a Fitbit Zip activity monitor and were instructed on how to wear the monitor, how to pair the activity monitor to their smartphone, and asked to provide our team consent to access their Fitbit data through Fitbit's Application Programming Interface (API)

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Fitbit Only

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Participants received a Fitbit Zip to wear daily for 8 weeks.

Fitbit + Pokémon Go Group

Participants randomized to the FB+P group received the same Fitbit Zip activity monitor and text message reminders as the FB group. This group was also shown how to download the Pokémon Go application to their smartphone and were provided brief instructions on how to play the game. Participants were instructed to simply explore the game and play it at their leisure. Participants were not provided any specific goals related to game play or physical activity in general.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Fitbit + Pokemon Go

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Participants received a Fitbit Zip to wear daily for 8 weeks. Participants also received access to the Pokemon Go game.

Interventions

Fitbit + Pokemon Go

Participants received a Fitbit Zip to wear daily for 8 weeks. Participants also received access to the Pokemon Go game.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Fitbit Only

Participants received a Fitbit Zip to wear daily for 8 weeks.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• 18-80 years of age, healthy adults, own smart phone, have access to the Internet, fluent in English, no contraindications to physical activity, not pregnant or planning to become pregnant, had not previously played Pokemon Go game

Exclusion Criteria

• <18 year or older than 80 years of age, did not own smart phone, did not have access to the Internet, not fluent in English, any contraindications to physical activity, pregnant or planning to become pregnant in next 2 months, had previously played Pokemon Go game

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 80 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)

NIH

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University of Iowa

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Lucas Carr

Assistant Professor

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Other Identifiers

5K25HL122305

Identifier Type: NIH

Identifier Source: secondary_id

View Link

201607768

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id