Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Jan 15, 2024
Date Accepted: Aug 14, 2024
Cadence-Based Pedometer App with Financial Incentives to Enhance Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity: Development and a Single-Arm Feasibility Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
High levels of physical activity are key to improving health outcomes, yet many people fail to take action. Using pedometers to target steps per day and providing financial incentives is a simple and scalable approach to promote public health. However, the conventional pedometers do not account for “intensity” and “duration,” making it challenging to efficiently increase peoples moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) which is expected to improve health outcomes. Based on these rationales, we developed a smartphone application software (app) that sets step cadence as a goal (defined as a daily challenge of walking more than 1,500 steps in 15 minutes twice a day, which is a heuristic threshold for moderate physical activity) and provides financial incentive when the challenge was met.
Objective:
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of our novel app and explore whether its use can increase users' daily MVPA.
Methods:
A single-arm pre-post study evaluated the feasibility and efficacy of the app. Fifteen participants used App 1 (an app without financial incentives) for the first period (4 weeks) and then switched to App 2 (an app with financial incentives) for the second period (4 weeks). The primary outcome was the difference between the first and second periods in the number of successful challenge attempts per week. Exploratory outcomes included the difference between the first and second periods in daily "heart points" as measured by Google Fit®, a publicly available app that measures users' daily MVPA.
Results:
The number of successful challenge attempts per week increased significantly compared to the first period (5.6 times/week vs. 0.7 times/week, p<0.001). An exploratory endpoint examining daily MVPA by “heart point” collected from Google Fit® also showed a significant increase compared to the first period (22.7 points per day vs. 12.8 points per day, p=0.016).
Conclusions:
Our app using step cadence as a goal and providing financial incentives seemed feasible and could be an effective app to increase users' daily MVPA. al economics, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), financial incentives, exercise Clinical Trial: UMIN 000050518
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