Using Behavioural Economics for More Sustainable Physical Activity mHealth Incentives: the Caterpillar App

Physical Inactivity Clinical Trial

Official title:

Applying Behavioural Economics for More Sustainable Physical Activity Incentives: A 12-week Pilot Feasibility Trial of the Caterpillar App in Leeds, UK

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT05294692
• Other study ID #: 120615
• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: September 8, 2022
• Est. completion date: December 1, 2023

Study information

• Verified date: March 2023
• Source: Western University, Canada
• Contact: Marc Mitchell, PhD
• Phone: 519-661-2111
• Email: marc.mitchell[@]uwo.ca
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

This 12-week study aims to test a sustainable incentive-based physical activity app program that may lower the size of incentive needed to stimulate physical activity and drive incentive costs down. Following the 5-day starting assessment (baseline) period, participants will be able to earn incentives in the form of loyalty points when they reach their daily step goals set by the Caterpillar app. Over the course of the 12-week study period, users will be rewarded for reaching their step goals through three different incentive programs in 30 day intervals: Month 1 (users will earn daily rewards of 3¢ per day upon achieving personalized daily step goal); Month 2 (users will earn weekly rewards (25¢ per week goal met 5+ times); Month 3 (users will earn team-based rewards (35¢ per week if 10+ goals are reached collaboratively with another user).

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Recruiting
• Enrollment: 5000
• Est. completion date: December 1, 2023
• Est. primary completion date: August 4, 2023
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• For iPhone users, only those with the 5S model or higher (device compatibility)
• Android smartphone users can also participate if their device supported step counting (i.e., has an accelerometer), but they are required to download the equivalent of Health Kit (e.g., the Google Fit application) first (this is an app, not study, related requirement).
• Over 18 years old

Exclusion Criteria:

• Caterpillar users who do not agree to the privacy agreement.

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Healthy Eating
• Physical Inactivity

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Financial Health Incentives
After registration on the Caterpillar App, participants will be instructed to 'carry their phone' as much as possible during a 5-day baseline period to assess their daily step counts. In Month 1, participants will earn daily rewards (3¢ per day personalized daily step goal met; BE "present bias"). In Month 2, users will earn weekly rewards (25¢ per week goal met 5+ times; BE "fresh start"). In Month 3, users will earn team-based rewards (35¢ per week if 10+ goals are reached collaboratively with someone they know e.g., friend; BE "herd mentality"). Participants are expected to earn $1.25 CAD (or 0.75 British pounds) over the course of the 12-week intervention (about $5/person/yr). Rather than offer daily incentives indefinitely, Caterpillar will offer daily incentives as a temporary feature-moving to larger, less frequent, less certain (team-based) incentives as PA becomes habitual.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United Kingdom	Caterpillar Health	Leeds

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Western University, Canada

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United Kingdom, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	App Uptake: Number of Downloads Each Week	Total number of Caterpillar app downloads off the App Store or Google Play	12 weeks
Primary	App Uptake: proportion of daily active users per week	number of users opening the app daily vs. number of total users	12 weeks
Secondary	Intervention effectiveness: Change in mean daily step count	measured by smartphone accelerometer	12 weeks
Secondary	Intervention effectiveness: change in mean weekly minutes of moderate-vigorous intensity physical activity	measured by smartphone accelerometer	12 weeks