Using Behavioral Economics to Achieve Improved Healthy Behavior Outcomes in Breast Cancer Survivors

Summary

Preventing or reducing obesity is one factor that has been hailed as a way to improve quality of life, reduce recurrence, and increase survival rates among breast cancer survivors. An experienced team of multi-disciplinary researchers has developed an innovative and unique approach to encourage enhanced nutrition and exercise behaviors in this population using principles of behavioral economics. In particular, the use of social norms or exemplars has been shown in other applications to be effective, and if successful in this population could be inexpensively scaled up for widespread adoption. The proposed pilot study develops a system of text messages for social/mobile media that will provide ongoing reinforcement of desired behavior in breast cancer survivors. These messages would focus on achieving compliance with the expert-developed nutrition and exercise recommendations of the American Cancer Society. In the main study, 310 breast cancer survivors will be randomly placed in intervention and control groups for the 12 week study. Behavior change will be measured using established measures of self-reported behavior. In a sub-study, 60 of the breast cancer survivor participants will also provide blood and urine samples so changes in biomarkers can be assessed. The impact of the study will be measured by biomarkers and self-reported survey responses.

Conditions

• Breast Cancer Female

Interventions

OTHER

placebo text message

The subjects in the control group will receive placebo text messages which will be timed as the intervention group that are unrelated to the study or topics of exercise and nutrition.

OTHER

nutrition physical activity text message

The subjects in the intervention group will receive text messages with nutrition and physical activity-related information throughout the study period on a daily basis, varying text message arrival over a 10 am to 7 pm time frame. The American Cancer Society recommends a set of exercise and nutrition behaviors for cancer survivors based upon developed expert evidence. These behaviors have been structured to achieve healthier lifestyles, improve quality of life and reduced mortality. The intervention will provide via text messaging exemplars and social norms designed to improve compliance with this advice.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Texas Tech University

  collaborator OTHER

• Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Conrad Lyford, PhD · Texas Tech University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

TRIPLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

20 Years

Max Age

75 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2015-06-30

Primary Completion

2019-09-30

Completion

2019-12-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations