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Evaluating the Carrot Rewards App, a Population-Level Incentive-Based Intervention Promoting Step Counts Across Two Canadian Provinces: Quasi-Experimental Study
- Source :
- JMIR mHealth and uHealth, Vol 6, Iss 9, p e178 (2018)
- Publication Year :
- 2018
- Publisher :
- JMIR Publications, 2018.
-
Abstract
- BackgroundThe Carrot Rewards app was developed as part of an innovative public-private partnership to reward Canadians with loyalty points, exchangeable for retail goods, travel rewards, and groceries for engaging in healthy behaviors such as walking. ObjectiveThis study examined whether a multicomponent intervention including goal setting, graded tasks, biofeedback, and very small incentives tied to daily step goal achievement (assessed by built-in smartphone accelerometers) could increase physical activity in two Canadian provinces, British Columbia (BC) and Newfoundland and Labrador (NL). MethodsThis 12-week, quasi-experimental (single group pre-post) study included 78,882 participants; 44.39% (35,014/78,882) enrolled in the Carrot Rewards “Steps” walking program during the recruitment period (June 13–July 10, 2016). During the 2-week baseline (or “run-in”) period, we calculated participants’ mean steps per day. Thereafter, participants earned incentives in the form of loyalty points (worth Can $0.04 ) every day they reached their personalized daily step goal (ie, baseline mean+1000 steps=first daily step goal level). Participants earned additional points (Can $0.40) for meeting their step goal 10+ nonconsecutive times in a 14-day period (called a “Step Up Challenge”). Participants could earn up to Can $5.00 during the 12-week evaluation period. Upon meeting the 10-day contingency, participants could increase their daily goal by 500 steps, aiming to gradually increase the daily step number by 3000. Only participants with ≥5 valid days (days with step counts: 1000-40,000) during the baseline period were included in the analysis (n=32,229).The primary study outcome was mean steps per day (by week), analyzed using linear mixed-effects models. ResultsThe mean age of 32,229 participants with valid baseline data was 33.7 (SD 11.6) years; 66.11% (21,306/32,229) were female. The mean daily step count at baseline was 6511.22. Over half of users (16,336/32,229, 50.69%) were categorized as “physically inactive,” accumulating
- Subjects :
- Information technology
T58.5-58.64
Public aspects of medicine
RA1-1270
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 22915222
- Volume :
- 6
- Issue :
- 9
- Database :
- Directory of Open Access Journals
- Journal :
- JMIR mHealth and uHealth
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- edsdoj.524c63c6a2304f4984ecc6c932c5bff4
- Document Type :
- article
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.2196/mhealth.9912