Promoting Contextually Cued PA Habits

NCT ID: NCT04691596

Last Updated: 2023-07-20

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

137 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2019-02-28

Study Completion Date

2020-08-21

Brief Summary

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The primary goal of this two-month pilot study is to measure the behavioral change induced by targeted habit formation reminders that are surfaced via an iPhone app and financial incentives that were offered conditional on using a personalized contextual cue for a daily walking habit. The data and user feedback collected during this study will also be used to optimize the design and content of the iPhone app, which will be tested in future, larger scale experimental research.

Detailed Description

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Subjects for this research are recruited on campus at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the State University of New York at Albany, and their participation was incentivized. After meeting the eligibility criterion (including have at least some intrinsic motivation for increasing physical activity), downloading the project's iPhone app, and signing the project consent form, all participants will have their step count data recorded for an 8-week study period.

Existing interventions that have successfully improved study participants' health-related behaviors typically find that behavioral changes do not persist beyond 3 months after the intervention period. Fortunately, novel habit formation interventions from the psychology literature offer the potential for building long-term behavioral change and avoiding the common "relapse triangles" observed in these existing behavioral interventions. These new methods are based on the theory that habits are formed through the repetition of the same behavior in response to a stable, environmental cue. After an initial period of repetition, automaticity is formed, and the behavioral response becomes more effortlessly/unconsciously induced by the environmental cue. Behavioral reminders that reinforce a specific behavioral routine-environmental cue pair have been shown to support this initial period of habit formation; however, given the individualized nature of these reminders, a generalizable intervention method has not been developed and empirically tested. This research will use an iPhone app to examine the role of both general informational on contextually cued habits and the use of personalized reminders and financial incentives for using a daily physical activity contextual cue on the persistence of physical activity behavior after the intervention tools are withdrawn.

Conditions

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Exercise

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Primary Study Purpose

PREVENTION

Blinding Strategy

SINGLE

Participants
Participants were randomized into four different study groups

Study Groups

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Control Group

One fourth of participants were assigned to the Control Group, and received a basic training with the StepUp app and were asked to contact the study team with any problems or questions they encountered during the eight-week study period. No other intervention tools or app reminders were provided to the Control Group.

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

App use instructions

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Received a basic training with the StepUp app

Treatment Group 1

Additionally eligible to receive weekly $5 Amazon gift cards over the first four weeks of the study for performing a ≥10-minute walk (i.e. non-cue-contingent incentives)

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Non-cue-contingent weekly incentives

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Eligible to win $5 Amazon gift card conditional on completing a daily ≥10-minute walk at any time of day

App use instructions

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Received a basic training with the StepUp app

Treatment Group 2

Received an instructional video on the benefits of contextual-cue-dependent habits and instructions on how to identify an optimal personalized cue that would consistently trigger their ≥10-minute walking habit, then they were similarly eligible weekly for $5 Amazon gift cards over the first four weeks conditional on completing a ≥10-minute walk at any time of day (i.e. non-cue-contingent incentives)

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Non-cue-contingent weekly incentives

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Eligible to win $5 Amazon gift card conditional on completing a daily ≥10-minute walk at any time of day

Habit Coaching

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Received an instructional video on the benefits of contextual-cue-dependent habits and instructions on how to identify an optimal personalized cue that would consistently trigger their ≥10-minute walking habit

App use instructions

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Received a basic training with the StepUp app

Treatment Group 3

Received an instructional video on the benefits of contextual-cue-dependent habits and instructions on how to identify an optimal personalized cue that would consistently trigger their ≥10-minute walking habit, then they were eligible weekly for $5 Amazon gift cards over the first four weeks conditional on completing a ≥10-minute walk at any the pre-specified time of their chosen contextual cue (i.e. cue-contingent incentives)

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Cue-contingent weekly incentives

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Eligible to win $5 Amazon gift card conditional on completing a daily ≥10-minute walk within a +/-1 hour window of the pre-specified time of their chosen contextual walking cue

Habit Coaching

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Received an instructional video on the benefits of contextual-cue-dependent habits and instructions on how to identify an optimal personalized cue that would consistently trigger their ≥10-minute walking habit

App use instructions

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Received a basic training with the StepUp app

Interventions

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Non-cue-contingent weekly incentives

Eligible to win $5 Amazon gift card conditional on completing a daily ≥10-minute walk at any time of day

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Cue-contingent weekly incentives

Eligible to win $5 Amazon gift card conditional on completing a daily ≥10-minute walk within a +/-1 hour window of the pre-specified time of their chosen contextual walking cue

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Habit Coaching

Received an instructional video on the benefits of contextual-cue-dependent habits and instructions on how to identify an optimal personalized cue that would consistently trigger their ≥10-minute walking habit

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

App use instructions

Received a basic training with the StepUp app

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* 18+ years of age
* Have an existing wellness goal related to increasing physical activity
* Access to an iPhone with iOS 10 or above (in order to use the app)
* Proficiency in speaking and reading English

Exclusion Criteria

* Have a major visual impairment
* Pregnancy
* Expected surgery
* A chronic or acute health condition that affects their ability to perform basic mobility tasks or light-aerobic exercise (e.g. heart disease, injured or missing limb, etc.)
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Maximum Eligible Age

65 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

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Arizona State University

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Chad [email protected]

Assistant Professor

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

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Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Troy, New York, United States

Site Status

Countries

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United States

References

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Stawarz, Cox, and Blandford. 2015. "Beyond self-tracking and reminders: designing smartphone apps that support habit formation." Proceedings of the 33rd annual ACM conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM.

Reference Type BACKGROUND

Lally, Phillippa, et al. 2010. "How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world." European journal of social psychology 40(6): 998-1009.

Reference Type BACKGROUND

Wood W, Neal DT. A new look at habits and the habit-goal interface. Psychol Rev. 2007 Oct;114(4):843-63. doi: 10.1037/0033-295X.114.4.843.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 17907866 (View on PubMed)

Wood and Neal. 2016. "Healthy through habit: Interventions for initiating & maintaining health behavior change." Behavioral Science & Policy 2(1): 71-83.

Reference Type BACKGROUND

Adriaanse MA, Gollwitzer PM, De Ridder DT, de Wit JB, Kroese FM. Breaking habits with implementation intentions: a test of underlying processes. Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2011 Apr;37(4):502-13. doi: 10.1177/0146167211399102. Epub 2011 Feb 11.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 21317315 (View on PubMed)

Stecher C, Chen CH, Codella J, Cloonan S, Hendler J. Combining anchoring with financial incentives to increase physical activity: a randomized controlled trial among college students. J Behav Med. 2024 Oct;47(5):751-769. doi: 10.1007/s10865-024-00492-4. Epub 2024 May 5.

Reference Type DERIVED
PMID: 38704776 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

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1698

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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