NCT03524183

Virtual Fitness Buddy Ecosystem

Completed Phase 2 Last updated 27 December 2024

What this trial tests

Phase 2 trial testing Virtual Fitness Buddy Ecosystem in Physical Activity in 964 participants. Completed in 30 June 2024.

Timeline

27 August 2018

Primary endpoint
30 June 2024

30 June 2024

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	University of Georgia
Phase	Phase 2
Status	Completed
Study type	INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation	randomized
Design	parallel
Masking	single
Primary purpose	prevention
Enrollment	964
Start date	27 August 2018
Primary completion	30 June 2024
Estimated completion	30 June 2024
Sites	1 location across United States

Drugs / interventions tested

• Virtual Fitness Buddy Ecosystem

Conditions studied

• Physical Activity — all drugs for Physical Activity →

Sponsor

University of Georgia

Who can join

Adults 6 to 10, any sex, with Physical Activity. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Sponsor's own description

The VFB Ecosystem capitalizes on digital technologies' ability to connect parents and children, allowing parents to actively support their child's physical activity, even when parents cannot be present. The VFB is a kiosk-based system that houses a virtual dog programmed to allow children to set self-determined physical activity goals. The children wear Fitbits while performing physical activity. Using the unique data embedded in the Fitbit, the kiosk is able to detect each individual child and automatically connect him or her to a unique, personalized virtual dog. Physical activity data is transmitted automatically from the Fitbit to the kiosk when the child approaches, and the virtual dog provides accurate evaluations of whether the child met the self-determined physical activity goal, offering words of encouragement and physical activity support. The virtual pet functions as a personalized fitness buddy to encourage children to set and meet physical activity goals, promote physical activity self-efficacy, and foster mutually supportive relationships among children, parents, and the virtual pet. This will be particularly helpful for children who receive insufficient amounts of social support in their current environment.

Concurrently, the kiosk sends a text message to parents on the child's physical activity progress. Parents are then able to send words of encouragement and communicate with their children via the kiosk, using the text messaging feature of their mobile phones. Thus, even when the parent is not with the child, the virtual pet is designed to serve as a coordinating focus for facilitating parent-child communication. Parents will also receive text messages from the kiosk with a security code to access a website that provides detailed records of the child's physical activity over time.

Publications & conference data

4 peer-reviewed publications reference this trial (live from Europe PMC):

1. Interventions to prevent obesity in children aged 5 to 11 years old.
   Spiga F, Davies AL, Tomlinson E, Moore TH, et al · · 2024 · cited 40× · PMID 38763517 · DOI 10.1002/14651858.cd015328.pub2
2. Digital therapeutics in the clinic.
   Phan P, Mitragotri S, Zhao Z. · · 2023 · cited 39× · PMID 37476062 · DOI 10.1002/btm2.10536
3. Virtual fitness buddy ecosystem: a mixed reality precision health physical activity intervention for children.
   Ahn SJG, Schmidt MD, Tate AD, Rathbun S, et al · · 2024 · cited 2× · PMID 38773297 · DOI 10.1038/s41746-024-01133-5
4. Mediating social support through sensor-based technologies for children's health behavior change.
   Baldwin J, Lee J, Tate AD, Okitondo CD, et al · · 2023 · cited 1× · PMID 40765951 · DOI 10.1093/jcmc/zmad011