The EARN-Health Trial of Financial Savings and Health — EARN-Health  

Depression Clinical Trial

Official title: EARN-Health: A Randomized Controlled Trial of the Effects of an Incentivized Savings Program on Depression, Anxiety, Substance Abuse, and Locus of Control

Status Completed

Clinical Trial Summary

The current literature in social epidemiology and public health suggests that low financial savings has an unsurprising negative relationship with subjective well-being, and increases the odds of making visits to a healthcare provider, receiving a chronic disease diagnosis, and experiencing medical disability. Earn.org is a community-based non-profit based in San Francisco with a mission to help low-income workers build lifelong savings habits and financial capability. The organization is one of the largest providers of "goal-based savings accounts" or "matched savings accounts" in the US. The investigators propose to conduct a randomized controlled trial to determine the health effects of Earn's savings program. Through this trial, the investigators will test three principal hypotheses: (1) Participants in the Earn account, as compared to a control group, are hypothesized to demonstrate improved scores on mental health scales assessing depression and anxiety.

(2) Participants in the Earn account, as compared to a control group, are hypothesized to experience lower odds of harmful behaviors associated with stress, specifically tobacco and alcohol abuse. The investigators hypothesize that the effect on behaviors will be of smaller effect size, and more delayed, than the effect on mental health outcomes, judging from similar effects observed in the micro-credit literature.

(3) The mediating variables between Earn account participation and beneficial health outcomes will include increased optimism and internal locus of control.

Clinical Trial Description

The investigators plan to conduct an RCT comparing participants in the new EARN program against wait-listed control subjects. The program provides low-wage workers with incentives and rewards for savings. The program involves a web-based platform that permits eligible savers to create a centralized savings account, which is a secure online account without fees. The account offers eligible savers small monetary rewards for dollars saved each month. The investigators plan to conduct a baseline online month 0 survey and a follow-up 6 month and 12 month online survey among participants and wait-listed nonparticipants, with telephone follow-up to maximize 6- and 12-month survey completion. The surveys consist of previously-validated instruments to assess key health behaviors self-reported well-being, and require approximately 20 minutes each. The surveys includes the CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System scales for assessing demographics and income, overall self-rated health, tobacco and alcohol use, depression and anxiety symptoms, and optimism and locus of control. Participants will receive prorated a gift card for each survey, to compensate participants for their time while avoiding a direct income effect of a cash incentive for participation. ;

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Alcohol Abuse
• Alcoholism
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Tobacco Abuse
• Tobacco Use Disorder

• NCT number: NCT02185612
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: Stanford University
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: October 2016
• Completion date: April 13, 2018