Trial reportBMC public health2017
Adaptive goal setting and financial incentives: a 2 × 2 factorial randomized controlled trial to increase adults' physical activity.
Trial report in BMC public health, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. It is linked to trial NCT02053259 (Walking Intervention Through Texting Study), which is not on this map. Cited by 59 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Walking Intervention Through Texting Study: A Factorial Trial
Who cites it
59 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Enhancing Weight Loss Programs: A Meta-Analysis of Financial Incentives and Behavior Change Techniques.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2026Pooled it
- Behaviorally Informed Interventions to Promote Activity in the Home and Community for Adults With Neurological Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Physical therapy · 2025Pooled it
- The impact of financial incentives on physical activity for employees in the context of workplace health promotion: a systematic review.Journal of occupational health · 2024Pooled it
- Systematic review of context-aware digital behavior change interventions to improve health.Translational behavioral medicine · 2021Pooled it
- Behavior Change Techniques and the Effects Associated With Digital Behavior Change Interventions in Sedentary Behavior in the Clinical Population: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in digital health · 2021Pooled it
- Text Message Interventions for Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.American journal of preventive medicine · 2020Pooled it
- Setting Goals and Accepting Challenges for Behavior Change-Analysis of Participants' Interactions With a Digital Multiple Health Behavior Intervention: Mixed Methods Study.JMIR human factors · 2025Trial
- Automated, tailored adaptive mobile messaging to reduce alcohol consumption in help-seeking adults: A randomized controlled trial.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2024Trial
- The moderating impact of neighborhood walkability on mHealth interventions to increase moderate to vigorous physical activity for insufficiently active adults in a randomized trial.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2023Trial
- Adaptive Goals and Reinforcement Timing to Increase Physical Activity in Adults: A Factorial Randomized Trial.American journal of preventive medicine · 2022Trial
- Wearable Activity Tracking Device Use in an Adolescent Weight Management Clinic: A Randomized Controlled Pilot Trial.Journal of obesity · 2021Trial
- Which Components of a Smartphone Walking App Help Users to Reach Personalized Step Goals? Results From an Optimization Trial.Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2020Trial
- Randomised controlled trial of real-time feedback and brief coaching to reduce indoor smoking.Tobacco control · 2020Trial
- A pedometer-based walking intervention with and without email counseling in general practice: a pilot randomized controlled trial.BMC public health · 2018Trial
- Adaptive step goals and rewards: a longitudinal growth model of daily steps for a smartphone-based walking intervention.Journal of behavioral medicine · 2018Trial
- Delay Discount Rate Moderates a Physical Activity Intervention Testing Immediate Rewards.Behavioral medicine (Washington, D.C.)Trial
- Wearable devices and cardiovascular health: revolutionizing remote monitoring and disease prevention.European heart journal · 2026Review
- Effectiveness of Step Goal Personalization Strategies on Physical Activity in a Mobile Health App: A Field Study.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2026Article
- Gamified Optimized Diabetes Management With Artificial Intelligence-Powered Rural Telehealth Intervention (GODART): Protocol for an Optimization Pilot and Feasibility Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2025Article
- Optimizing and Testing an Individualized and Adaptive Physical Activity Digital Health Intervention: Protocol for a Control Optimization Trial Embedded Within a Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundEmerging interventions that rely on and harness variability in behavior to adapt to individual performance over time may outperform interventions that prescribe static goals (e.g., 10,000 steps/day). The purpose of this factorial trial was to compare adaptive vs. static goal setting and immediate vs. delayed, non-contingent financial rewards for increasing free-living physical activity (PA).
methodsA 4-month 2 × 2 factorial randomized controlled trial tested main effects for goal setting (adaptive vs. static goals) and rewards (immediate vs. delayed) and interactions between factors to increase steps/day as measured by a Fitbit Zip. Moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) minutes/day was examined as a secondary outcome.
resultsParticipants (N = 96) were mainly female (77%), aged 41 ± 9.5 years, and all were insufficiently active and overweight/obese (mean BMI = 34.1 ± 6.2). Participants across all groups increased by 2389 steps/day on average from baseline to intervention phase (p < .001). Participants receiving static goals showed a stronger increase in steps per day from baseline phase to intervention phase (2630 steps/day) than those receiving adaptive goals (2149 steps/day; difference = 482 steps/day, p = .095). Participants receiving immediate rewards showed stronger improvement (2762 step/day increase) from baseline to intervention phase than those receiving delayed rewards (2016 steps/day increase; difference = 746 steps/day, p = .009). However, the adaptive goals group showed a slower decrease in steps/day from the beginning of the intervention phase to the end of the intervention phase (i.e. less than half the rate) compared to the static goals group (-7.7 steps vs. -18.3 steps each day; difference = 10.7 steps/day, p < .001) resulting in better improvements for the adaptive goals group by study end. Rate of change over the intervention phase did not differ between reward groups. Significant goal phase x goal setting x reward interactions were observed.
conclusionsAdaptive goals outperformed static goals (i.e., 10,000 steps) over a 4-month period. Small immediate rewards outperformed larger, delayed rewards. Adaptive goals with either immediate or delayed rewards should be preferred for promoting PA.
trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT02053259 registered prospectively on January 31, 2014.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.