Lottery Incentives for Moving

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Obesity; Sedentary Lifestyle
• Interventions: Behavioral: Incentive to exercise

• Registration Number: NCT01278654
• Lead Sponsor: Harvard University

Brief Summary

The purpose of the study is to learn more about effective ways to motivate people to increase their non-exercise energy expenditure exercise. This is an important research question because obesity and weight-related issues are increasingly becoming a problem in America. This project will address this research question by testing the effect of two different incentive schemes in motivating employees who are predominantly sedentary to use Walkstations at work. The Walkstations are treadmills that move at a very slow rate (maximum 2miles / hour) and are attached to a work station (i.e. with computer and telephone); they therefore are designed to increase energy spent not through heavy exercise, but through small changes in posture and movement associated with routines in daily life (called nonexercise activity thermogenesis or NEAT).

Subjects will be employees of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA). Subjects will be the control participants from the previous Walkstation study we ran with BCBSMA. All 120 control participants from this previous study will be told that they can now participate in a study that involves the Walkstations (up until now, they have not been given access to the Walkstations). These participants from the previous study will be sent an email informing them that they are eligible to participate in this new Walkstation pilot. Those who are interested in participating will then be invited to sign up for an enrollment session. There will be no incentives for participating in the initial enrollment session. For the 2 month follow-up session, participants will have a chance to win 1 of 3 prizes (1 \* $100, 2 \* $50) for completing the follow-up.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2011-01-18
• Study First Submitted QC: 2011-01-18
• Study First Posted: 2011-01-19
• Study Start: 2011-03
• Primary Completion: 2011-05
• Study Completion: 2011-08
• Status Verified: 2012-03
• Last Update Submitted: 2012-03-15
• Last Update Posted: 2012-03-19

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 212

Inclusion Criteria

• must pass ParQ

Exclusion Criteria

• if fail ParQ

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Personal incentive	Incentive to exercise	If participants attain their walkstation usage goal, they are entered into bi-weekly lotteries to win money.
Token incentive	Incentive to exercise	Participants who attain their walkstation usage goal will be entered into a bi-weekly prize to win a token reward.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Walkstation usage	after approx 60 days

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Questionnaire	baseline and 45 days
Biometric measures	baseline and 60 days	Height, weight, blood pressure

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Blue Cross Blue Shield Massachusetts; 🇺🇸 Boston, Massachusetts, United States