Can Brief Text Messages Promote Cycling?

NCT ID: NCT03732573

Last Updated: 2018-11-07

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: UNKNOWN
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 200 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2018-11-30
• Study Completion Date: 2019-06-30

Brief Summary

Cycling behaviour is not widely adopted despite the known benefits for individuals (e.g. health), communities (e.g. less traffic), and environment (e.g. less pollution). Promoting cycling has been studied with infrastructural changes such as building new paths, segregating cycling and vehicle traffic, placing more traffic signs, etc. Few studies using psychological aspects to promote physical activity indicate that goal setting, goal operating, and self-monitoring techniques to be the most effective ones. Current study aims to convey these techniques via short text messages in order to promote bike share schemes.

Detailed Description

BCTs have been used to promote many different behaviours including physical activity. Reviews show that the most effective techniques for promoting physical activity are self-monitoring, intention formation, feedback on performance, and goal setting. These techniques are also the core tenets of control theory, which suggests that setting, monitoring, and operating on goals are central to self-control.

To date, most of the intervention studies targeting psychological predictors of behaviour have used one-to-one communication by professionals, counselling, incentives etc. However, such methods may be difficult and costly to implement on a large scale. The proposed research therefore tests whether delivering these techniques via a convenient method (i.e. SMS text messages) is effective in promoting use of bike share schemes. We will also test whether the strength of participants' intentions to use bike share schemes moderates the effects of the intervention.

Participants will be randomly allocated into one of two groups (one experimental and control group). Participants in the control group will receive no messages. Participants in the intervention group will receive text messages prompting goal-setting (e.g. "How many times can you use a shared bike scheme over the next week? Set yourself a goal and challenge yourself!"), goal operating (e.g. "Make plans about when you could use a shared bike scheme, such as at a particular time or for a particular journey next week."), and self-monitoring (e.g. "Studies show that keeping track of progress can help people to achieve their goals. This is what the apps provided by the shared bike schemes can do for you!"). The messages will comprise of 160 characters at most and participants in the intervention group will receive three messages per week.

One month after taking the baseline survey, participants will be asked to fill in a follow-up survey which will ask them how many times they have used bike share schemes in total during the past month. This information is provided in the apps in "My Trips" section and participants will be asked to count the number of individual trips that they have taken since they completed the baseline survey. It is hypothesized that participants in the intervention group will use bike share schemes more frequently than those in the control group and that the intervention effect will be moderated by the strength of participants' initial intentions.

Mixed-measures (condition x time) ANOVA will be used to test for differences in shared bike use between the groups between baseline and follow-up. A moderation analysis will also be conducted to test whether the effect of the text messages on bike scheme use differs by intention strength.

Conditions

Sedentary Lifestyle

Study Design

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

Study Groups

Intervention Group

This group will receive 9 text messages over 3 weeks. Messages will be based on goal-setting in the first week, goal-operating in the second week, and self-monitoring in the third week.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Text messages

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Text messages conveying 3 specific behaviour change techniques

Control Group

Participants in this group will receive no messages during the intervention period.

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

Text messages

Text messages conveying 3 specific behaviour change techniques

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Adults who live in a city with a bike share
• Owns a smart phone

Exclusion Criteria

• Individuals who cannot ride a bicycle

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

Sponsors

University of Sheffield

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Onur Cem Dogru

Principle Investigator

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

References

Carver CS, Scheier MF. Control theory: a useful conceptual framework for personality-social, clinical, and health psychology. Psychol Bull. 1982 Jul;92(1):111-35. No abstract available.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

PMID: 7134324 (View on PubMed)

Bird EL, Baker G, Mutrie N, Ogilvie D, Sahlqvist S, Powell J. Behavior change techniques used to promote walking and cycling: a systematic review. Health Psychol. 2013 Aug;32(8):829-38. doi: 10.1037/a0032078. Epub 2013 Mar 11.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

PMID: 23477577 (View on PubMed)

Michie S, Abraham C, Whittington C, McAteer J, Gupta S. Effective techniques in healthy eating and physical activity interventions: a meta-regression. Health Psychol. 2009 Nov;28(6):690-701. doi: 10.1037/a0016136.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

PMID: 19916637 (View on PubMed)

Rose T, Barker M, Maria Jacob C, Morrison L, Lawrence W, Strommer S, Vogel C, Woods-Townsend K, Farrell D, Inskip H, Baird J. A Systematic Review of Digital Interventions for Improving the Diet and Physical Activity Behaviors of Adolescents. J Adolesc Health. 2017 Dec;61(6):669-677. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2017.05.024. Epub 2017 Aug 16.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

PMID: 28822682 (View on PubMed)

Michie S, Richardson M, Johnston M, Abraham C, Francis J, Hardeman W, Eccles MP, Cane J, Wood CE. The behavior change technique taxonomy (v1) of 93 hierarchically clustered techniques: building an international consensus for the reporting of behavior change interventions. Ann Behav Med. 2013 Aug;46(1):81-95. doi: 10.1007/s12160-013-9486-6.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

PMID: 23512568 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

University of Sheffield

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id