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A Randomized Trial of Behaviorally Designed Gamification and Social Incentives to Increase Physical Activity Among Overweight and Obese Veterans

NCT05554601 · Status: ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 725

Last updated 2026-03-30

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Despite the many associated health benefits, more than half of Veterans do not achieve enough regular physical activity. The investigators' prior work has demonstrated that gamification, a method commonly used for health promotion, can lead to sustained increases in physical activity if it is designed using insights from behavioral economics to enhance social incentives. In this study, the investigators will compare the effectiveness of behaviorally designed gamification that encourages Veterans to collaborate or compete on physical activity levels and examine clinical outcomes as well as costs, barriers and facilitators to implementation of the program within Veterans Affairs.

Conditions

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

gamification with collaboration

participants receive a FitBit and set goals, then are assigned to a group of other participants who will play a game to gain points based on collaboration

BEHAVIORAL

gamification with competition

participants receive a FitBit and set goals, then are assigned to a group of other participants who will play a game to gain points based on competition with each other

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • VA Office of Research and Development

    lead FED

Principal Investigators

  • Scott R Greysen, MD · Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA

  • Amol S. Navathe, MD PhD · Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
DOUBLE
Model
SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2023-07-17
Primary Completion
2026-07-01
Completion
2026-07-01

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

More Related Trials

Entities

Diseases

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT05554601 on ClinicalTrials.gov