An interventional study of Financial Incentives in Obesity and Incentives, sponsored by Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School. Completed at 1 site in Singapore. Open to participants aged 21 Years to 65 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2016-01-05.
Sponsored by Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School · Not applicable, Interventional, and Health services research
The purpose of this study is to test the extent to which incentives, when combined with an existing evidence-based weight loss program, improve weight loss and weight loss maintenance. It will also compare the cost-effectiveness of the incentive-based weight loss programs to the basic program without incentives.
Globally, the rise in obesity rates has reached epidemic proportions, and in Singapore 53% of adults have a body mass index (BMI) great than 23.0 kg/m2, a level that increases risk for chronic disease among Asians. This study aims to test the extent to which traditional or behavioural economic incentives, when combined with an existing evidence-based weight loss program, improve weight loss and weight loss maintenance. Data will be collected through a two-arm (basic weight loss program, basic program plus traditional or behavioural economic incentives) randomized controlled trial (RCT) where key outcome variables are defined as weight loss (kilograms) at 8 months when the incentive program concludes, and at 12 months, after a 4 month period in which no additional incentives are provided. We hypothesize that at both 8 and 12 months, weight loss will be greater in the incentive arm than in the arm without incentives. The growing obesity epidemic, the high costs of obesity to employers, insurers and governments across Asia, and the fact that the incentive program is designed to be close to cost neutral, suggest that this research has high potential to have a significant public health impact, both in Singapore and the region.
1,766 studies on the registry are indexed under Weight Loss; 277 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 161 is above the median of 73 across 1,496 interventional studies indexed under Weight Loss.
Browse Weight Loss studies →Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School is the lead sponsor of 62 studies on the registry; 6 are open to participants now.
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Exclusion Criteria:
Control participants will attend a 4-month structured weight-loss program and attend subsequent follow-ups at 4-month intervals upon completion of the program.
Incentive arm participants will be offered an additional program (in addition to the COMM program) where they can earn incentives for meeting specified weight loss targets or step goals. They will be offered a choice between traditional (payments with certainty) and behavioral(payments paid via lottery) incentives.
Other: Financial Incentives
Incentive arm participants will be able to earn incentives for meeting specified weight loss targets or step goals. They will be offered a choice between traditional (payments with certainty) and behavioral(payments paid via lottery) incentives.
Weight change
Time frame: Baseline, 4 months, 8 months and 12 months
Percent body fat
Time frame: Baseline, 4 months, 8 months, 12 months
Self-reported physical activity
Time frame: Baseline, 4 months, 8 months, 12 months
Steps, aerobic steps and minutes of physical activity
Time frame: Monthly through month 8 (in incentive arms)
Intrinsic and Extrinsic motivation
Time frame: Baseline
Sociodemographics
Time frame: Baseline
Health-related quality of life
Time frame: Baseline, 4 months, 8 months, 12 months
Intervention costs
Time frame: Baseline through month 8
This study is completed, as verified in Jan 2016. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School