Feel the Move: A Micro-Randomized Trial of a Text-Based Expectation-Setting Intervention to Increase Physical Activity
- Conditions
- Physical Activity
- Registration Number
- NCT05582369
- Lead Sponsor
- University of Michigan
- Brief Summary
The aim of this research is to evaluate the impacts of an intervention that reminds people of the affective rewards of exercise on physical activity in adults of any activity level
- Detailed Description
The Feel the Move study tests the effects of a lightweight text-message based intervention to increase physical activity and affective attitudes towards exercise. The intervention being investigated is text messages that prime expected affective rewards of exercise, sent in advance of a time window during which participants made plans to exercise. At the start of the study, participants will write sentences about feeling good after exercise (which will be used as part of the intervention) and complete baseline questionnaires about their feelings towards exercise. For the next nine weeks, participants will be asked to plan two exercise sessions a week, and will be given a questionnaire after the time window of their planned exercise sessions to assess how it went. At the onset of each time window for their planned exercise session, participants will be micro-randomized to receive one of the following intervention options: no-message; a text message reminding them to fill out the study questionnaires; or a message about the affective rewards of exercise. The messages about affective rewards will be a mix of sentences participants wrote themselves during the baseline assessment and reflective prompts from the research team. At the nine-week mark, participants will again complete the same questionnaires about their feelings towards exercise that they initially completed at baseline. Throughout the study, participants will share data about their activity, including steps and calories burned, with the research team. These data will be automatically collected by the HIPAA-compliant CareEvolution platform from participants' Apple Watches. After the nine weeks of the study participation, a random sample of study participants will be asked to participate in exit interviews to share more details about their experiences with the intervention.
The primary hypothesis is that participants will burn more calories during their planned exercise periods when they receive messages about the affective rewards of exercise vs. when they do not. Researchers will also conduct secondary analyses examining the effects of the intervention on feelings towards exercise and qualitative data from the interviews.
Recruitment & Eligibility
- Status
- COMPLETED
- Sex
- All
- Target Recruitment
- 200
- lives in the US
- 18 years old or older
- desires to increase activity through structured exercise
- has an iPhone that can send/receive text messages and an Apple Watch
- medically advised not to exercise
Study & Design
- Study Type
- INTERVENTIONAL
- Study Design
- SINGLE_GROUP
- Primary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Calories burned in planned exercise session 4 hours Calories burned during the four-hour time window when participants planned to exercise
- Secondary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Change from Baseline Expected Post-exercise affect at 9 weeks At study completion, 9 weeks after enrollment Participants will be asked question about their expected post-exercise affect at the beginning and end of the 9 week study
Change from Baseline in other affective attitude measures at 9 weeks At study completion, 9 weeks after enrollment Participants will be asked additional questions about their affective attitudes towards and valuations of exercise at the beginning and end of the 9 week study
Trial Locations
- Locations (1)
University of Michigan
🇺🇸Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
University of Michigan🇺🇸Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States