Tweet4Wellness: An Online Virtual Support Group for Promoting Increased Physical Activity

Physical Activity Clinical Trial

Official title:

Tweet4Wellness: An Online Virtual Support Group for Promoting Increased Physical Activity

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT02958189
• Other study ID #: 32127
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: June 20, 2019
• Est. completion date: December 20, 2019

Study information

• Verified date: April 2020
• Source: Stanford University
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

The purpose of this study is to determine whether a Twitter-based intervention with a private, online support group can significantly increase number of walking steps compared to self-monitoring of physical activity alone or a control group in sedentary women at a women's heart clinic.

Description:

Sedentary behavior is a risk factor for heart disease, independent of meeting physical activity guidelines. Tweet4Wellness is an innovative light physical activity, specifically walking, intervention which randomly assigns participants to a 25-person private, online support group that will receive daily, theory-based messages as peer-to-peer discussion prompts. Many text-based interventions do not base the intervention text messages in behavior change theory, but this study will base the daily messages in the behavior change theories such as implementation intentions, social support, mindfulness, and social learning theory.

The trial will be conducted over a 6-month periods. For the first 3 months, there will be 2 groups: Group 1 will receive the Twitter intervention and a "Fitbit" triaxial pedometer to track their steps throughout the day; Group 2 will receive the Fitbit pedometer only.

For the second 3 months: Group 1 an Group 2 will track their physical activity with Fitbit only.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 45
• Est. completion date: December 20, 2019
• Est. primary completion date: December 15, 2019
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: Female
• Age group: 18 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Are a woman

• Are over 18 years of age

• Are English speaking

• Have or are willing to purchase a mobile phone with a camera

• Have or are willing to purchase an unlimited text plan

• Are willing to participate in daily tweets or texts for up to 3 months

• Have an active email account

• Have internet access on your mobile phone

• Use or are familiar with Facebook, Twitter, or other social media

• Text at least weekly

Exclusion Criteria:

• Have certain symptoms or conditions that would not be conducive to increasing your physical activity as determined by your physician

• Are planning on becoming pregnant in the next 8 months

• If our screening survey indicates that you are already adequately physically active

• Do not provide all required personal contact information

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Physical Activity
• Social Media

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Tweet4Wellness
A daily, behavior change theory-based intervention message is sent to a private, 25-person online Twitter-support group to prompt peer-to-peer discussion. Participants receive individual text messages to encourage group participation (e.g. 'thank you for participating' or 'please participate tomorrow'). Participants also receive weekly individual messages giving them daily step goals for the week based on their previous week's daily step average, recorded from Fitbit.
• Self-monitoring
A Fitbit is provided to the group which tracks participants' daily steps.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	Stanford University School of Medicine	Stanford	California

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Stanford University

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Change in steps (physical activity)	Steps measured by triaxial accelerometer	Baseline to 3 months and 6 months
Secondary	Support Group Engagement during the intervention	Measured by # of Tweets per day sent to the group	3 months
Secondary	average length of prolonged sedentary periods per day	average length of uninterrupted sedentary periods per day over a seven day period	baseline to 3 months and 6 months