NCT02957539

Financial vs. Non-Financial Rewards for Weight Loss and Weight Maintenance

Completed NA Results posted Last updated 28 July 2023

What this trial tests

NA trial testing Financial rewards in Obesity in 274 participants. Completed in 30 July 2021.

Timeline

21 March 2018

Primary endpoint
5 March 2021

30 July 2021

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	VA Office of Research and Development
Phase	NA
Status	Completed
Study type	INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation	randomized
Design	parallel
Masking	none
Primary purpose	prevention
Enrollment	274
Start date	21 March 2018
Primary completion	5 March 2021
Estimated completion	30 July 2021
Sites	1 location across United States

Drugs / interventions tested

• Financial rewards
• Non-Financial rewards

Conditions studied

• Obesity — all drugs for Obesity →

Sponsor

VA Office of Research and Development — full company profile →

Who can join

Adults 18 to 69, any sex, with Obesity. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Results — posted to ClinicalTrials.gov

Per-arm endpoint measurements with 95% confidence intervals where reported. Source: trial results section.

Weight Change From Baseline to Week 32 Primary · 32 weeks

The primary outcome is weight measured in pounds at week 32 minus the weight at baseline.

Group	Value	95% CI
Control	-1.8	-5.2 – 1.7
Financial	-6.3	-9.9 – 2.7
Non-Financial	-6.8	-10.5 – -3.2

Self Efficacy Secondary · Change form baseline to 16 weeks

Measured by survey responses to the Weight Efficacy Lifestyle Questionnaire Short Form (WEL-SF).Scale goes from 0 (not at all confident) to 10 (very confident). Higher scores mean better outcomes. Missing values at follow-up were imputed using multiple imputation by chained equations (MICE)

Group	Value	95% CI
No Reward	-.7	-1.5 – .1
Financial Reward Arm	-.1	-.8 – .6
Non-financial Reward Arm	-.4	-1.2 – .3

Self Efficacy Secondary · Change form baseline to 32 weeks

Measured by survey responses to the Weight Efficacy Lifestyle Questionnaire Short Form (WEL-SF).Scale goes from 0 (not at all confident) to 10 (very confident).

Group	Value	95% CI
No Reward	-.4	-1.4 – .6
Financial Reward Arm	-.2	-1.0 – 0.5
Non-financial Reward Arm	.1	-.7 – 0.9

Self Efficacy Secondary · Change form baseline to 52 weeks

Measured by survey responses to the Weight Efficacy Lifestyle Questionnaire Short Form (WEL-SF).Scale goes from 0 (not at all confident) to 10 (very confident).

Group	Value	95% CI
No Reward	-1.4	-2.5 – -0.4
Financial Reward Arm	.1	-.7 – .9
Non-financial Reward Arm	-.3	-1.1 – .5

Intrinsic Motivation Secondary · Change form baseline to 16 weeks

Measured by patient survey responses to the Regulation of Eating Behavior Scale. Scale from 1 (does not agree at all) to 7 (agrees exactly). Higher values represent greater intrinsic motivation

Group	Value	95% CI
No Reward	-.4	-.9 – .2
Financial Reward Arm	-.1	-.5 – .2
Non-financial Reward Arm	-.3	-.7 – 0.0

Intrinsic Motivation Secondary · Change form baseline to 32 weeks

Measured by patient survey responses to the Regulation of Eating Behavior Scale. Scale from 1 (does not agree at all) to 7 (agrees exactly). Higher values represent greater intrinsic motivation

Group	Value	95% CI
No Reward	-.7	-1.3 – 0
Financial Reward Arm	-.1	-.7 – .4
Non-financial Reward Arm	0	-.6 – .5

Intrinsic Motivation Secondary · Change form baseline to 52 weeks

Measured by patient survey responses to the Regulation of Eating Behavior Scale. Scale from 1 (does not agree at all) to 7 (agrees exactly). Higher values represent greater intrinsic motivation

Group	Value	95% CI
No Reward	-.6	-1.6 – .4
Financial Reward Arm	-.1	-.7 – .5
Non-financial Reward Arm	0	-.7 – .7

PHQ-8 Depression Score Secondary · Change from baseline to week 16

Measured by patient survey responses to the Personal Health Questionnaire Depression Scale (PHQ-8). The scale ranges from 0 to 24. Higher scores mean more severe depression.

Group	Value	95% CI
No Reward	-.2	-2.2 – 1.9
Financial Reward Arm	.1	-1.1 – 1.3
Non-financial Reward Arm	.6	-0.7 – 1.8

PHQ-8 Depression Score Secondary · change from baseline to 32 weeks

Measured by patient survey responses to the Personal Health Questionnaire Depression Scale (PHQ-8). The scale has the following options: not at all, several days, more than half the days, nearly every day. Scores range from 0 to 24. Higher scores represent more severe depression.

Group	Value	95% CI
No Reward	-1.7	-4.2 – .8
Financial Reward Arm	-.3	-2.1 – 1.5
Non-financial Reward Arm	.5	-1.4 – 2.4

PHQ-8 Depression Score Secondary · change from baseline to 52 weeks

Measured by patient survey responses to the Personal Health Questionnaire Depression Scale (PHQ-8). Measured by patient survey responses to the Personal Health Questionnaire Depression Scale (PHQ-8). The scale ranges from 0 to 24. Higher scores mean more severe depression.

Group	Value	95% CI
No Reward	.8	-2.3 – 3.9
Financial Reward Arm	-.3	-2.3 – 1.8
Non-financial Reward Arm	1.1	-0.9 – 3.1

Weight Change From Baseline Secondary · 16 weeks

A secondary outcome is weight measured in pounds at week 16 minus the weight at baseline.

Group	Value	95% CI
Control	-2.4	-5 – 0.3
Financial	-5.6	-8 – -3.1
Non-Financial	-7.0	-9.4 – -4.5

Weight Change From Baseline Secondary · 52 weeks

A secondary outcome is weight measured in pounds at week 52 minus the weight at baseline.

Group	Value	95% CI
Control	-5.4	-10.2 – 0.6
Financial	-3	-7.8 – 1.8
Non-Financial	-9	-13.6 – 4.3

Sponsor's own description

Three of every four Veterans are overweight or obese, and weight loss is associated with reduced morbidity and mortality. The VA MOVE! program for weight loss is moderately effective but only reaches a small percentage of overweight Veterans. This proposed study will test whether a patient incentive program that gives Veterans non-financial incentives, such as Seattle Mariners baseball tickets, for losing one pound per week over 16 weeks is effective. An effective patient-incentive program could help more Veterans lose weight without requiring a substantial increase in VA staff.

Publications & conference data

No peer-reviewed publications indexed yet for this trial. Completed trials usually publish results within 12-18 months.