Br J Health Psychol. Van Dongen HP, Olofsen E, Dinges DF, Maislin G. Mixed-model regression analysis and dealing with interindividual differences. Every year, PCSFN gives the Presidents Council Community Leadership Awardto individuals or organizations that improve the lives of individuals within a community, by providing or enhancing opportunities to engage in sports, physical activity, fitness, or nutrition-related programs. Second, with the current study we were not able to disentangle the effects of the multiple elements of the Sweatcoin application (i.e. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2013.06.017. Table S2. Article A randomized study of financial incentives to increase physical activity among sedentary older adults. Personal financial incentives for changing habitual health-related behaviors: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Med Internet Res. Newell DJ. Behav Res Methods. J Pers Soc Psychol. Three participants failed to download the app, resulting in 148 participants fully enrolled in the study. Peralta M, Martins J, Gmez Chvez F, Corts Almanzar P, Marques A. Self-rated well-being and physical activity associations in European older adults. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0160589. The observed changes were not sustained 12 months after the end of the trial. Google Scholar. Individuals who follow the WHO recommendation of 150min of moderate aerobic activity per week [52] show reduced day-time (e.g. 2017;43(2):7990. Regular physical exercise reduces systolic and diastolic blood pressure among healthy adults [11], improves health indicators in chronic patients [46], and is known for its therapeutic effects on mental health, particularly on reducing depressive symptoms [10]. They owned a compatible smartphone (either Apple iPhone 5S or above or an Android-based phone running v4.4 KitKat or above) (none excluded). Google Scholar. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. It was assessed with questions from the short version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ [12];) referring to the last 7 days prior to the questionnaire completion. Life satisfaction was not measured in the follow-up survey (T4). Joseph RP, Royse KE, Benitez TJ, Pekmezi DW. https://doi.org/10.2196/mhealth.6394. Sports Med. Learn more about the Community Leadership Award. This reduced the available data and has made it difficult to draw accurate conclusions due to lack of statistical power. 2014;19(1):14980. Lathia N, Sandstrom GM, Mascolo C, Rentfrow PJ. Moreover, this finding is also consistent with previous research showing that changes in behaviour are not sustained when financial incentives disappear [20, 33, 49]. Exp Gerontol. Use health fair prizes, rewards, and incentives to boost engagement, improve motivation, and add pizzazz to your latest project. Further, physical activity may increase SWB by increasing positive affect and self-affirmation related to increased physical fitness [23]. Br J Sports Med. 1). 2015;38(3):42749. Google Scholar. LW: Conceptualization, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Data interpretation, Writing original draft, Review and Editing. Prev Med. This study examined the impact of a rewards-for-exercise mobile application on physical activity, subjective well-being and sleep quality among 148 employees in a UK university with low to moderate physical activity levels. J Sports Med Phys Fit. J Behav Med. 2013;28(4):3209. J Sleep Res. Springer Nature. A post hoc power analysis for repeated measures analysis (within factors) was conducted with GPower 3.1 [16]. Specifically, we used the daily step count as obtained by the accelerometer sensors in participants smartphones. Copyright 2022 Food and Health Communications, Inc, 10582 King Street, Westminster Colorado 80031 Turner-McGrievy GM, Beets MW, Moore JB, Kaczynski AT, Barr-Anderson DJ, Tate DF. Our health fair giveaways make healthy incentivesfor adults and healthy prizesfor kids! Health fair prizes or incentives can movegames, presentations, and activities from good to great! The study involved an opportunity sample of staff members (both academic and administrative and support staff) at the University of Warwick (Coventry, UK). Thus, the possibility to receive tangible rewards through everyday routines and across a local and accessible market may be effective in encouraging physical activity in a working environment and encourages employers and labour market institutions to further invest in such interventions. 2003;35(8):138195. The primary outcome measure was self-reported physical activity. Participants were excluded because they did not meet one or more criteria. https://doi.org/10.23736/S0022-4707.18.08260-9. CAS The tested models allowed us to account for within- subjects (random effects) and between-subjects (fixed effects) variance [48]. Subjective well-being (SWB) Life satisfaction showed a gradual increase between T0 (M=-0.18) and T3 (M=0.13) reflecting a small to medium effect size (d=0.31) (no measurement at 1-year follow-up available). Waters CN, Ling EP, Chu AH, Ng SH, Chia A, Lim YW, et al. The Council also gives out awards that recognize individuals or organizations who have contributed in various ways to the advancement or promotion of physical activity, fitness, sports, or nutrition. 2013;9:1157. Two-hundred and fifty-three (253) university staff members (both academic as well as administrative and support staff) registered their interest in the study and completed an initial screening questionnaire used to check the eligibility to participate according to the following inclusion criteriaFootnote 1: They were using the Sweatcoin app for the first time (excluded n=13 who had been using the app before). Gneezy U, Meier S, Rey-Biel P. When and why incentives (don't) work to modify behavior. Marques A, Peralta M, Martins J, Catunda R, de Matos MG, Nunes LS. They were deemed moderately active or inactive as determined by the General Practice Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPPAQ [38];; score less than 3) (excluded n=48 who were more than moderately active). Umpierre D, Ribeiro PA, Kramer CK, Leito CB, Zucatti AT, Azevedo MJ, et al. This site is coordinated by the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. A study on 5892 young adult Sweatcoin users showed an average 18.7% increase in daily step count over 6 months following registration with the app, compared to a 3-month period before registration [15]. In addition, Sweatcoin offers an opportunity to maintain a physical activity profile and to interact and compare activity patterns with other users. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.25.4.191. 2019;59(3):40714. Loewenstein G, Brennan T, Volpp KG. Seventy (70) participants successfully completed the third interim questionnaire (T3) again 1 month later, and they were offered a 5 voucher to use at campus outlets, for completing all four waves. Add Your Logo - Customize It Just For You! Physical activity, sedentary behavior, and health: paradigm paralysis or paradigm shift? PubMed Central JAMA. However, the likely effect was not sustained 12 months after the opportunity to exchange Sweatcoins at the in-app local marketplace had ceased. Behav Med. PubMed Armijo-Olivo S, Warren S, Magee D. Intention to treat analysis, compliance, drop-outs and how to deal with missing data in clinical researchA review. The work was supported by the Innovate UK grant, under Grant [number 102984] awarded to Dr. Mark Elliott (University of Warwick) and Sweatcoin as well as by the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) under Grant [number G.HFPS.0002] to Dr. Sakari Lemola. Abbreviations: IPAQ: International Physical Activity Questionnaire [12]; LS: Life satisfaction questions; PANAS: Positive and Negative Affect Survey [51]; PoH: Perception of Health questions; PSQI: Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index) [5]. Ten (10) of those failed to complete the next interim questionnaire (T2) again 1 month later. Physical activity advice only or structured exercise training and association with HbA1c levels in type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis. First, our study lacks a control group and randomization to intervention and therefore cannot be used to draw causal conclusions. Participants were invited to manually download and share their Apple HealthKit step count history at the end of the follow-up questionnaire. Finally, sleep quality was measured with the global score of Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) [5] with higher values representing lower sleep quality. Moreover, we ran correlation analyses for the device-measured and subjectively measured physical activity as well as for the examined outcome variables (i.e., physical activity, SWB, and sleep quality). https://doi.org/10.2196/12053. JMIR mHealth uHealth. As the study lacked a control group, no firm conclusions about causal effects are possible. Additional funding was received from Warwick Sport to provide the rewards. 2015;75:7585. 1992;21(5):83741. JAMA. Lemola, S., Gkiouleka, A., Read, B. et al. Adult High School Middle School MyPlate Coloring Book Workbook Pack of 10, MyPlate Wristbands Child for Little Kids - Pack of 20. Mantzari E, Vogt F, Shemilt I, Wei Y, Higgins JP, Marteau TM. A systematic review of workplace health promotion interventions for increasing physical activity. This site is coordinated by the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. sleepiness) and night-time symptoms (e.g., difficulty in falling asleep) of insomnia [21] and better sleep quality [26], although the extent of such benefits varies according to age and sex (see for example [7, 32]). Cooney GM, Dwan K, Greig CA, Lawlor DA, Rimer J, Waugh FR, et al. A key driver of physical inactivity is that people are often physically inactive at work, with a large proportion of the population in desk-based jobs that involve long periods of sitting [25, 50]. Med Sci Sports Exerc. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.34. https://doi.org/10.1177/1403494809341092. 2016;77:711. BMC Public Health. Asymmetric paternalism to improve health behaviors. Cookies policy. JAMA. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-016-9769-2. The mean self-reported physical activity measured in metabolic equivalents (MET) increased from T0 (M=-0.12) to T3 (M=0.22), that is, during the 3 months of Sweatcoin app use reflecting a small to medium effect size (d=0.34). Manage cookies/Do not sell my data we use in the preference centre. The authors read and approved the final manuscript. Stephens J, Allen J. N. We thank the study participants for participation and the study funders for supporting the work. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. Therefore, identifying strategies to increase levels of physical activity at a population level is a major public health priority [37]. Effects on outcome measures could be attributed to factors relevant to the seasons of measurement (i.e. Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Correspondence to https://doi.org/10.1136/amiajnl-2012-001510. Intention to Treat Analysis Results. The study suggests that mobile incentives-for-exercise applications might increase physical activity levels, positive affect, and sleep quality, at least in the short term. Diabetes. Hartescu I, Morgan K, Stevinson CD. https://doi.org/10.2190/PM.41.1.c. Am J Prev Med. As secondary outcome variable, we used device-measured physical activity. 2016;16(4):48897. The results are illustrated in Fig. Cornelissen VA, Smart NA. The advent of smartphone and wearable technologies has provided a platform for innovative approaches that motivate activity [19, 40, 43,44,45]. Prev Med. We examined differences in physical activity, SWB and sleep quality before and after 3 months of consecutive use of the Sweatcoin application as well as 12 months after the opportunity to exchange Sweatcoins on campus had ceased (15months after the beginning of the trial). Remember, your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed! Walking to health. The findings show an increase in self-reported physical activity (d=0.34), life satisfaction (d=0.31), positive affect (d=0.29), and sleep quality (d=0.22) during the three-month trial period. PubMed BR: Conceptualization, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Data interpretation, Writing original draft, Review and Editing. Kanning M, Schlicht W. Be active and become happy: an ecological momentary assessment of physical activity and mood. 2009;41(4):114960. Sweatcoins can be used to buy products on an in-app marketplace; here a local marketplace was added to the app, where participants could be products available from campus retail outlets (c). Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. By using this website, you agree to our Malik SH, Blake H, Suggs LS. https://doi.org/10.1179/174328809X405928. Buysse DJ, Reynolds CF III, Monk TH, Berman SR, Kupfer DJ. We plan to resume giving these awards in 2021. Further, our findings agree with existing studies showing that people are more likely to change their physical activity patterns, if they are provided with tangible and directly accessible rewards [28]. Example screenshots from the customised Sweatcoin application. Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative. Secondary measures included device-measured physical activity, subjective well-being (i.e., life satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect), and self-reported sleep quality. BMJ. The only difference between the customised app and the publicly available version was that besides the in-app public marketplace, the former included also a local marketplace with products available from retail outlets in the University campus (see Supplementary Table 1). The hypotheses and associated analyses were registered prior to the data analysis [AsPredicted No: 19317 https://aspredicted.org/v38eh.pdf]. A group size of n=62 was required to detect an effect size of d=0.30 (f2=0.15 [9];) with statistical power of 0.80 (two-sided type one error level p=0.05, assuming repeated measures correlation of r=0.50 and 4 measurement times). Elliott M, Eck F, Khmelev E, Derlyatka A, Fomenko O. PubMed Central Additionally, the observation that changes in physical activity vanished a year after the end of the trial suggests even further that the direct access to tangible rewards is crucial for the effectiveness of behaviour change interventions. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000143. NKYT: Conceptualization, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Data interpretation, Writing original draft, Review and Editing. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.298.20.2415. 2011;25(4):191210. Terms and Conditions, The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. CAS One-hundred and ninety-two (192) members of staff received an information leaflet, of which 11 withdrew citing reasons such as not using their phone frequently or not wishing to leave their GPS on all day. Chu AHY, Koh D, Moy FM, Mller-Riemenschneider F. Do workplace physical activity interventions improve mental health outcomes? However, ITT analysis showed that selective sample dropout did not explain the results. Article https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2008.804. Finally, participants were not blind with regard to the intervention they received and therefore placebo effects could explain the results. Get great deals sent directly to your inbox! Uchida S, Shioda K, Morita Y, Kubota C, Ganeko M, Takeda N. Exercise effects on sleep physiology. The Presidents Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition (PCSFN) has a number of programs and initiatives to help inspire you to be active, eat well, and get healthy. Biomedical and Scientific Research Ethics Committee, General Practice Physical Activity Questionnaire, International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Physical activity, sleep quality, and self-reported fatigue across the adult lifespan. This indicates that the device-measured physical activity in our study was likely to have underestimated respondents actual levels of physical activity. With wristbands, notepads, temporary tattoos, erasers, pens, stickers, bookmarks, magnets, buttons, and more, this collectionhas everything you need for your next event! https://doi.org/10.1080/17461391.2018.1469672. Mobile phone interventions to increase physical activity and reduce weight: a systematic review. 2 and the characteristics of the original sample are presented in Table 1. Google Scholar. However, only 9 participants provided their data, so no analyses of device-measured physical activity took place in T4. Google Scholar. The study received ethical approval by the University of Warwick Biomedical and Scientific Research Ethics Committee (BSREC) (Reference number: REGO-2017-2070). One-hundred and eighty-one (181) participants received the initial questionnaire (T0) and 151 of them completed it. 2007;298(20):24157. 2011;305(17):17909. A question on sedentary behaviour was not used. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exger.2016.02.001. However, while apps and wearables can improve levels of physical activity [19, 40, 45], existing evidence shows that changes are usually not sustained in the long run (i.e. Interventions to promote walking: systematic review. Phys Ther Rev. J Happiness Stud. Accumulated coins are stored in the digital wallet along with a record of transactions (b). The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. volume21, Articlenumber:782 (2021) Food and Health Communications is a National Strategic Partner with the USDA for MyPlate and Nutrition Education, Orange Coins: Diet and Exercise = Healthy and Wise, Rainbow Chard: Be Brighter Every Day With Good Nutrition, Custom Photography and Food Photography Service, 20 Ways to Decorate Your Nutrition Education or Health Wall. An open-label single-arm trial among university staff with low to moderate physical activity levels. The increase was not sustained 12 months after the opportunity to exchange Sweatcoins on Campus had ceased (T4: M=-0.11). Home JMIR mHealth uHealth. Kredlow MA, Capozzoli MC, Hearon BA, Calkins AW, Otto MW. International physical activity questionnaire: 12-country reliability and validity. 2019;21(3):e12053. Emotion. Financial incentives for exercise adherence in adults: systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods Enzymol. 2008;300(22):26317. Increased physical activity improves sleep and mood outcomes in inactive people with insomnia: a randomized controlled trial. Faul F, Erdfelder E, Buchner A, Lang AG. Associations between physical activity and self-rated well-being in European adults: a population-based, cross-sectional study. Further, there is a lack of evidence regarding whether effects of mobile Health (mHealth) applications may spill over to other health related domains and for instance also increase SWB and sleep quality. Walking: a best buy for public and planetary health. 2010;32(2):25361. Positive and negative affect were each assessed with the ten items of the PANAS Scale [51]. Christie AD, Seery E, Kent JA. Subsequently, nine more participants withdrew due to non-availability or reluctance. H2a: Participants levels of SWB and sleep quality increase from before the use of the Sweatcoin application to 3 months after consecutive application use; and H2b: the observed increase in SWB and sleep quality is sustained until 12 months after the end of the trial. T0/baseline was in February while T3 was in May). PubMed It was not possible to gather participants daily step-count via the app in the follow-up period, T4. Int J Psychiatry Med. Learn more about each program and how you can get involved, and see past award recipients whove made a difference. The recruitment process is summarised in Fig. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjhp.12052. Can a rewards-for-exercise app increase physical activity, subjective well-being and sleep quality? A three-month open-label single-arm trial with a one-year follow-up after the end of the trial. Due to the application using a verification algorithm that relies on Global Positioning System (GPS) signals to reward genuine steps, only outdoor steps were converted. Intention-to-treat analysis: implications for quantitative and qualitative research. 2015;15:18. The following hypotheses were tested: H1a: Participants self-reported and device-measured physical activity increases from before the use of the Sweatcoin application to 3 months of consecutive application use; and H1b: the observed increase in physical activity is sustained until 12 months after the end of the trial. Future research applying randomized controlled designs is needed to confirm the findings. Cite this article. 2014;64(4):23545. BMC Public Health. List of products available from retail outlets in the University campus offered as rewards on the in-app local marketplace. Morris JN, Hardman AE. Similarly, positive affect (T0: M=-0.10) increased after 2 months of consecutive use of the Sweatcoin app (T2: M=0.09) and even further after 3 months (T3: M=0.19) reflecting a small to medium effect size (d=0.29). 2007;334(7605):1204. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.39198.722720.BE. It has also been suggested that employers might be interested in encouraging physical activity of their staff as active employees may not only be healthier but also show better performance at work [29]. Third, regarding device-measured physical activity, we were only able to measure steps rather than other types of physical activity and only when the phone was carried. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-013-0492-8. One such application is Sweatcoin, which records the number of outdoor steps and converts them into a virtual currency that can be used to purchase goods and services from the in-app public marketplace [14]. Participants used the Sweatcoin application which converted their outdoor steps into a virtual currency used for the purchase of products available at the university campus outlets, using an in-app marketplace. Standardization was conducted using the overall mean and standard deviation across all measurement time-points. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. This study suggests that mobile incentives-for-exercise applications might increase physical activity levels, positive affect, ratings of life satisfaction, and sleep quality, at least in the short term. Cohen J. Google Scholar. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2015.03.001. 2017;5(12):e185. Reasons reported for withdrawal at that point were did not think it was appropriate to be asked mental health questions from two participants and frustration at the inaccuracy of recording steps. CAS https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.06.003. Part of 1988;54(6):106370. Bull FC, Hardman AE. Qual Life Res. 2017;13(1):311. https://doi.org/10.1016/0165-1781(89)90047-4. https://doi.org/10.1080/08964289.2015.1074880. Exercise training for blood pressure: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Dr. Mark Elliott held an honorary unpaid research position within Sweatco Ltd. (Sweatcoin) for the period of the Innovate UK funded project (May 2017May 2018). Diener E. Subjective well-being: the science of happiness and a proposal for a national index. PubMed Bright spots, physical activity investments that work: Sweatcoin: a steps generated virtual currency for sustained physical activity behaviour change. 2012;3:15. Katzmarzyk PT. That data was provided by Sweatcoin for each participant and included information from 1 month before the app was downloaded through to the end of the trial. According to Cohen [9] an effect-size of d=0.20 was considered small, d=0.50 medium, and d=0.80 large. no longer than 3months) [43]. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. Okely AD, Tremblay MS, Hammersley M, Aubert S. Targeting sedentary behaviour at the policy level. Fruit and Vegetable Shaped Pens - Pack of 100 Assorted Pens, Fruit-Shaped Note Pads - Pack of 100 Assorted Pads, MyPlate Wristbands Bigger Kids - Pack of 20, Fruit and Vegetable Shaped Pens - Pack of 10. 2013;45(5):65867. Participants gave written informed consent before filling in the questionnaires and sharing their digital data. Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: the PANAS scales. [13]). The self-reported physical activity and device-measured physical activity with the Apple HealthKit were significantly correlated at baseline T0 (r=0.51, p=0.001), T1 (r=0.39, p<0.05), and T2 (r=0.37, p<0.05) but not in T3 (r=0.21, p>0.05). J Exerc Rehabil. PubMedGoogle Scholar. The effect was not sustained at T4 (M=0.02). Can a rewards-for-exercise app increase physical activity, subjective well-being and sleep quality? An overview of participant enrolment and drop-out as the trial progressed. ME: Conceptualization, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Funding Acquisition, Data interpretation, Writing original draft, Review and Editing. AR: Conceptualization, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Data interpretation, Writing original draft, Review and Editing. Visitcovid.govfor the latest Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) updates. The rest of the authors have no conflict of interest to disclose. 2019;53(18):11956. 3 showing standardized scores. All FHC nutrition education products meet the Dietary Guidelines and MyPlate goals. https://doi.org/10.1097/JCN.0b013e318250a3e7. Derlyatka A, Fomenko O, Eck F, Khmelev E, Elliott MT. Fourth, the participants, who were screened to be included in the study, were self-selected and might have been more motivated to change their behaviour. https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqu045. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.12297. Still, initiating and maintaining suitable levels of physical activity remains a challenge for many people. BMC Public Health Mitchell MS, Goodman JM, Alter DA, John LK, Oh PI, Pakosh MT, et al. Ogilvie D, Foster CE, Rothnie H, Cavill N, Hamilton V, Fitzsimons CF, et al. 2004;384:13971. Such findings are consistent with research showing that financial incentives may encourage physical activity [2, 17, 30]. One-hundred and thirty-nine (139) participants subsequently received the first interim-questionnaire (T1) 1 month later, with 123 completing it. Am Psychol. Gabbiadini A, Greitemeyer T. Fitness mobile apps positively affect attitudes, perceived behavioral control and physical activities. Abingdon: Routledge; 1988. Prev Med. Finally, fifty-five (55) respondents participated in a follow-up survey (T4), 12 months after the completion of the trial (15 of those respondents reported still using the app at least occasionally). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-015-9617-6. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61552-3_25. BMC Public Health 21, 782 (2021). 2008;47(2):1827. They were older than 18years and younger than 70years of age (none excluded). ITT analysis allowed us to analyse the data of all those who originally participated in the trial regardless of whether they completed it and test whether the original analyses results were subject to selection bias [1]. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2017-098566. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2016.07.021. A specific type of smartphone application aims to increase physical activity through extrinsic incentives and rewards [22]. The participants were asked to indicate the extent to which each of the 20 emotion-related adjectives described their current emotional state on a 5-point scale ranging from 0 (not at all) to 4 (to a large extent).