Financial Health Incentives to Promote Physical Activity Among Hospital Employees: A Randomized Control Trial

Summary

The objective of this randomized control trial is to examine whether incentives-for-steps (i.e. $1 per day step count goals are reached) increase daily step counts among physically inactive hospital employees.

Conditions

• Physically Inactive Hospital Employees

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Wellness program

All participants have access to Change4Life, a web-based health education and behaviour change program. Individuals are rewarded with very modest incentives (uncertain chance; less than 1 in 100 chance of earning) when they complete learning modules or health tasks.

DEVICE

Accelerometer

All participants will be asked to wear the StepsCount Piezo accelerometer, which tracks steps and bout minutes of MVPA per day, synchronize the device to the Change4Life program, and reach daily step count goals for 24 weeks.

BEHAVIORAL

Incentive

During the first 12 weeks, participants will be eligible to earn $1 in vouchers (e.g., grocery, cinema) when daily goals are reached. The total amount available over the 3-month intervention period will be $90 (9,000 points). During weeks 13 to 24, participants will not receive daily reward points for completing step count goals.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Green Shield Canada Inc.

  collaborator INDUSTRY

• Cookson James Loyalty Inc.

  collaborator INDUSTRY

• Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Toronto

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Guy Faulkner, PhD · University of Toronto

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2017-02-06

Primary Completion

2017-11-30

Completion

2017-11-30

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations