Do Incentives Promote Action Planning in a Web-based Walking Intervention?

Abstract

Objective In this study, we examine the effect of providing an incentive for engagement in self-regulatory behaviors (ie, action planning), in inactive, office-based university employees participating in an 11-week, Web-based walking intervention. Methods Participants were randomly assigned to either control (intervention only) or incentive (intervention plus incentive; CAD $5.00 e-gift card delivered weekly for completing action plans over 4 weeks) conditions. Cohen's d was used to estimate the effect of the incentive on action planning and a RM-ANOVA examined differences in average steps/day, between the 2 conditions, before, during, and after the 4-week incentive period. Results Sixty-nine participants were included in the analysis (incentive: N = 34; control: N = 35; 88% female; Mage = 40.46±10.6 years). A large effect size (d = 1.01) in action plan completion was observed, favoring the incentive condition, with the effect of condition remaining high after incentives were withdrawn (d = 1.0). Greater steps/day favored the incentive condition during the post-incentive period (small effect size; d = 0.28). Conclusions Incentives were effective in encouraging engagement in a self-regulatory strategy (action planning). Future research should examine the optimal incentive structure and timing for engagement.

The Interplay of Plans and Intentions: A Pledge-Based Intervention to Reduce Participation in a Single Hazardous Event

“…With respect to pledges and incentives, similar to the findings of Omran, et al (2018), pledging with incentives were somewhat effective in encouraging engagement in a selfregulatory strategy (action planning). Not surprisingly as males were more likely to complete the fifth of alcohol, they were much less likely to participate in the pledge campaign (31.1% males vs. 54.1% females).…”

“…Healthcare and health promotion professionals have implemented interventions to address problem behaviors such as social norms marketing campaigns (Cox & Bates, 2011;Perkins & Craig, 2006), incentive programs (Omran, Trinh, Arbour-Nicitopoulos, Mitchell, & Faulkner, 2018) and pledge campaigns. Social norms marketing campaigns have limitations such as not being effective when participants are well-calibrated in terms of perceptions of hazardous behaviors within their community (Bruce & Keller, 2007;O'Brien et al, 2013;Turrisi, Mallett, Mastroleo, & Larimer, 2006).…”

The Effectiveness of Strategies to Improve User Engagement With Digital Health Interventions Targeting Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Overweight and Obesity: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Most studies were deemed low risk for "random sequence generation" (36/54, 67%) [55,60-62,64,65,67,69-73, 75,77-82,85-88,90,91,93,94,96,97,100,102,103,106,108,110,111] and "selective outcome reporting" (45/54, 83%) [33,55,[60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85]87 For user experience outcomes, the ROB for "incomplete outcome data" was mixed, with half (14/28, 50%) of the studies rated as high risk [62,64,65,72,81,82,[85][86][87]95,96,98,101,102]. For user experience outcomes, the ROB for "blinding of outcome assessment" was also mixed, with 50% (14/28) of the studies rated as unclear [61,65,81,84,…”

“…For the meta-analysis of use outcomes, 201 outcomes from 94% (51/54) of the studies with 17,828 participants were included. The excluded use outcomes and studies and reasons for exclusion are summarized in Multimedia Appendix 6 [33,55,61,[66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80]84,85,88,89,91,93,94,96,98,99,[102][103][104][105][106][107][108]111,118].…”

“…For those studies reporting on use outcomes, 112 outcomes from 63% (32/51) of the studies that used one or more BCTs as an engagement strategy were included [33,55,[61][62][63][64][66][67][68][69]71,72,[76][77][78][79][80]83,88,89,92,93,98,99,[102][103][104][105][106][107][108][109]111]. There were no BCTs coded as engagement strategies for the remaining 89 outcomes from 41% (21/51) of the studies.…”