Browsing by Author "Faulkner, Guy"
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- ItemEvaluating the Carrot Rewards App, a Population-Level Incentive-Based Intervention Promoting Step Counts Across Two Canadian Provinces: A Quasi-Experimental Study.(0000-00-00) Mitchell, Marc; White, Lauren; Lau, Erica; Leahey, Tricia; Adams, Marc; Faulkner, GuyBACKGROUND The Carrot Rewards application 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 OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to examine whether a multi component 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 METHODS A 12 week quasi experimental single group pre post study was conducted Among eligible participants n 78 882 44 39 n 35 014 enrolled in the Carrot Rewards Steps walking program during the recruitment period June 13th July 10th 2016 During the two week baseline or run in period mean steps day were calculated for participants Thereafter participants earned incentives in the form of loyalty points worth 0 04 CAD every day they reached their personalized daily step goal i e baseline mean 1 000 steps level of first daily step goal Participants earned additional points worth 0 40 CAD for meeting their step goal 10 non consecutive times in a 14 day period called a Step Up Challenge Participants could earn up to 5 00 CAD during the 12 week evaluation period Upon meeting the 10 day contingency participants could increase their daily goal by 500 steps with the objective of gradually increasing the number of steps participants take each day by 3 000 Only participants with five or more valid days days with step counts between 1 000 and 40 000 during the baseline period were included in the analysis n 32 229 The primary study outcome was mean steps day by week and was analyzed using linear mixed effects models RESULTS Of the 32 229 participants with valid baseline data the mean age was 33 7 11 6 years and 66 11 21 306 32 229 were female The mean daily step count at baseline was 6 511 22 Just over half of users 50 69 16 336 32 229 were categorized as physically inactive accumulating less than 5 000 daily steps at baseline Results from the mixed effects models revealed statistically significant increases in mean daily step counts when comparing baseline with each Study Week PUnder 0001 Compared to baseline participants walked 115 70 more steps 95 CI 74 59 156 81 PUnder 0001 at Study Week 12 Users classified as high engagers app engagement above the sample median 48 13 15 511 32 229 in BC and NL walked 738 70 95 CI 673 81 803 54 PUnder 0001 and 346 00 95 CI 239 26 452 74 PUnder 0001 more steps respectively Among physically inactive high engagers 21 08 7 022 32 229 an average increase of 1 224 66 steps per day 95 CI 1160 69 1288 63 PUnder 0001 was observed Effect sizes were modest CONCLUSIONS Providing very small but immediate rewards for personalized daily step goal achievement as part of a multi component intervention increased daily step counts on a population scale especially for physically inactive individuals and individuals who engaged more with the walking program Positive effects in both BC and NL provide evidence of replicability
- ItemProgram implementation and effectiveness of a national workplace physical activity intervention: UPnGO with ParticipACTION.(0000-00-00) Lau, Erica Y; Faulkner, GuyINTERVENTION UPnGO with ParticipACTION UPnGO is a 6 week workplace physical activity PA initiative aiming to increase habitual PA steps during the workday Core intervention components included 1 self monitoring of steps and action planning behaviours using a Web mobile app with incentives and 2 organizational support which included senior management s role modeling and endorsement of the program RESEARCH QUESTION What is the effectiveness and levels of implementation of the UPnGO intervention What is the relationship between effectiveness and levels of implementation METHODS A single arm pre post test study design was used Participants were 660 employees from nine organizations who had valid step data and complete socio demographic information at baseline The primary outcome mean daily steps was assessed by Garmin VivoFit Using the usage data from the UPnGO web based system a composite score for levels of implementation was calculated based on participant s compliance with the self monitoring component and senior management s role modeling Associations of interest were analyzed using linear mixed effects models RESULTS Levels of implementation were highly variable across organizations mean 68 22 18 75 range 19 8 to 100 A significant Time Implementation IM status interaction effect was observed When stratified by IM status a significant increase in mean daily steps at week 6 was found among participants in the high 540 01 202 69 p 0 011 but not low 81 54 291 96 p 0 78 implementation group CONCLUSION Findings suggest significant intervention effects in increasing average daily steps among participants who were exposed to optimal levels of implementation 70 UPnGO may be a scalable workplace PA intervention at a national level although this needs further verification with more rigorous study designs
- ItemSmartphone app uses loyalty point incentives and push notifications to encourage influenza vaccine uptake.(0000-00-00) Dale, Leila Pfaeffli; White, Lauren; Mitchell, Marc; Faulkner, GuyPURPOSE Carrot Rewards is a free incentive based smartphone health app available in participating provinces in Canada One feature of Carrot was designed to incentivize influenza vaccine education messages and encourage vaccine uptake for users in the province of British Columbia This study aimed to evaluate the uptake of the Carrot Flu Campaign educational quiz and to determine if mobile push notifications plus loyalty point incentives resulted in users visiting a sponsored pharmacy to discuss and receive the influenza vaccine METHODS The Carrot Flu Campaign delivered an in app quiz educating users on the importance of the influenza vaccine Push notifications were then sent to users when they came within 200 m of a sponsored pharmacy Those who visited the pharmacy collected bonus points and completed a follow up quiz tracking influenza vaccine behaviour A sub sample of users completed the Flu Campaign between their baseline and follow up Health Risk Assessment HRA a survey which asked about influenza vaccine uptake behaviour Descriptive statistics were summarized RESULTS A total of 38 1 30 538 80 228 registered Carrot users completed the Flu Campaign quiz Of those in participating cities n 21 469 41 clicked on the map to show the nearest sponsored pharmacy and 78 enabled their smartphone s locations feature allowing them to receive the push notifications A small number of users spoke to a pharmacist n 96 and less than half reported receiving the influenza vaccine 38 96 39 6 From the HRA sub sample n 3693 approximately 5 more users reported receiving the influenza vaccine during the 2017 influenza season compared to the previous year CONCLUSIONS Carrot Rewards used a novel delivery method to educate the general population and showed geolocation could be used to facilitate influenza vaccine uptake Future iterations could tailor content to target those most at risk and should consider more robust evaluation methods to determine the app s effectiveness