Clinical trial NCT01282957: Way to Health, Healthy Measures
Official title: Financial Incentives for Home-based Health Management: A Pilot Randomized Trial
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Diabetes
Hypertension
Lead sponsor: University of Pennsylvania
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: National Institute on Aging (NIA)
First posted: 2011-01-25
Enrollment: 75
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 80
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Brief summary: The primary objective of the study is to assess the effect of financial incentives on the use of home health monitoring devices among high-risk patients. In addition, there are three secondary objectives: (1) obtain preliminary evidence regarding whether the monetary value of incentives has a differential effect on the use of home health monitoring devices; (2) identify potential barriers that prohibit regular use of home-based health devices using qualitative data; and (3) assess the usability of a newly developed web portal and its feasibility for future randomized clinical trials aimed at changing health-related behaviors.

Detailed description: While home monitoring of health appears to be a promising frontier in health care, patient adherence to, and utilization of, such devices is often low, limiting the potential benefit of this technology. Financial incentives have been effective in increasing rates of weight loss, smoking cessation, and medication adherence and therefore may increase rates of utilization of home-based health monitoring devices. Therefore, in this study, we test the effects of lottery-based incentives on use of home-based health monitoring technologies.

The aim of this pilot randomized controlled trial is to evaluate whether financial incentives delivered through a novel online platform can effectively increase use of home-based health monitoring technology among overweight adults with diabetes. Our primary objective is to assess the effects of financial incentives on the use of home health monitoring devices among high-risk patients. In addition, we have three secondary objectives: (1) obtain preliminary evidence regarding whether the monetary value of incentives has a differential effect on the use of home health monitoring devices; (2) identify potential barriers that prohibit regular use of home-based health devices using qualitative data; and (3) assess the usability of a newly developed web portal and its feasibility for future randomized clinical trials aimed at changing health-related behaviors.

Participants will be randomized into each of the following three arms: (1) Financial Incentive Group I; (2) Financial Incentive Group II; (3) Control Group. Incentives for Financial Groups I and II are designed in a way that builds on the success of previous incentive-based interventions for weight loss. Both lotteries are tailored to provide infrequent large payoffs and frequent small payoffs since lottery players are motivated by both the possibility of a large reward and the opportunity for regular, immediate rewards. The average expected payoff value of Financial Incentive Group I will be $2.80 per day and $1.40 per day in Financial Incentive Group II. The interventions will run for 91 days starting at randomization. At the end of the intervention time period, each participant will be notified that the intervention period has ended and the 90-day follow-up period has begun. During the follow-up period each participant will continue to upload measurements daily, but will not receive incentives or reminders.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Adults between 18 and 80 years of age
* Hemoglobin A1c measured in the last six weeks greater than or equal to 7.5%
* Weight less than 425lbs
* Cell phone with text messaging capabilities or email access
* Followed by Primary Care Provider at Penn Internal Medicine Associates practice at 3701 Market St

Exclusion Criteria:

* Lack or are unwilling to use email or cell phone for text messaging
* Are enrolled in other, ongoing clinical trials
* Suffer from an uncontrolled psychiatric disease
* Have a history or diagnosis of heart failure as confirmed by ICD-9 codes: 428.0 (congestive heart failure), 425.0 (cardiomyopathy), and 414.8 ischemic cardiomyopathy)

Primary outcomes:
measure: Rate of use of the three home-based technologies
timeFrame: 3-months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Usability and functionality of the study's online web portal, Way to Health, and wifi-enabled home health monitoring devices
timeFrame: 6-months
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Philadelphia
country: United States
facility: University of Pennsylvania
state: Pennsylvania
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Pennsylvania
name: Kevin Volpp, MD, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Volpp KG, Troxel AB, Pauly MV, Glick HA, Puig A, Asch DA, Galvin R, Zhu J, Wan F, DeGuzman J, Corbett E, Weiner J, Audrain-McGovern J. A randomized, controlled trial of financial incentives for smoking cessation. N Engl J Med. 2009 Feb 12;360(7):699-709. doi: 10.1056/NEJMsa0806819.
citation: Volpp KG, John LK, Troxel AB, Norton L, Fassbender J, Loewenstein G. Financial incentive-based approaches for weight loss: a randomized trial. JAMA. 2008 Dec 10;300(22):2631-7. doi: 10.1001/jama.2008.804.
citation: Volpp KG, Loewenstein G, Troxel AB, Doshi J, Price M, Laskin M, Kimmel SE. A test of financial incentives to improve warfarin adherence. BMC Health Serv Res. 2008 Dec 23;8:272. doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-8-272.
citation: Sen AP, Sewell TB, Riley EB, Stearman B, Bellamy SL, Hu MF, Tao Y, Zhu J, Park JD, Loewenstein G, Asch DA, Volpp KG. Financial incentives for home-based health monitoring: a randomized controlled trial. J Gen Intern Med. 2014 May;29(5):770-7. doi: 10.1007/s11606-014-2778-0. Epub 2014 Feb 13.