Effect of a financial incentive (shopping point) on increasing the number of daily walking steps among community-dwelling adults in Japan: a randomised controlled trial

Fumiya Tanji; Yasutake Tomata; Saho Abe; Sanae Matsuyama; Yumika Kotaki; Dieta Nurrika; Koichi Matsumoto; Yingxu Liu; Shu Zhang; Yukai Lu; Yumi Sugawara; Shino Bando; Teiichiro Yamazaki; Tatsui Otsuka; Toshimasa Sone; Ichiro Tsuji

doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2020-037303

Effect of a financial incentive (shopping point) on increasing the number of daily walking steps among community-dwelling adults in Japan: a randomised controlled trial

BMJ Open. 2020 Nov 4;10(11):e037303. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-037303.

Authors

Fumiya Tanji^{1

2}, Yasutake Tomata¹, Saho Abe¹, Sanae Matsuyama¹, Yumika Kotaki¹, Dieta Nurrika¹, Koichi Matsumoto¹, Yingxu Liu¹, Shu Zhang¹, Yukai Lu¹, Yumi Sugawara¹, Shino Bando^{1

3}, Teiichiro Yamazaki¹, Tatsui Otsuka¹, Toshimasa Sone⁴, Ichiro Tsuji⁵

Affiliations

¹ Division of Epidemiology, Department of Public Health and Forensic Medicine, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan.
² Department of Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Japanese Red Cross Akita College of Nursing, Akita, Japan.
³ School of Nursing, Miyagi University, Kurokawa-gun, Miyagi, Japan.
⁴ Department of Rehabilitation, Faculty of Health Science, Tohoku Fukushi University, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan.
⁵ Division of Epidemiology, Department of Public Health and Forensic Medicine, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan tsuji1@med.tohoku.ac.jp.

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a financial incentive on the number of daily walking steps among community-dwelling adults in Japan.

Study design: Two-arm, parallel-group randomised controlled trial.

Setting/participants: We recruited physically inactive community-dwelling adults from Sendai city, Japan. Eligible participants were randomly allocated to an intervention or a wait list control group. Pedometers were used to assess the mean number of daily steps in three periods: baseline (weeks 1-3), intervention (weeks 4-6) and follow-up (weeks 7-9).

Intervention: The intervention group was offered a financial incentive (shopping points) to meet the target number of increased daily steps in the intervention period.

Main outcome measures: The primary outcome was an increase in the mean number of daily steps in the intervention and follow-up periods compared with baseline.

Results: Seventy-two participants (69.4% women; mean age, 61.2±16.2 years; mean number of daily steps at baseline, 6364±2804) were randomised to the intervention (n=36) and control groups (n=36). During the intervention period, the increase in mean daily steps was significantly higher in the intervention group (1650, 95% CI=1182 to 2119) than in the control group (514, 95% CI=136 to 891; p<0.001). However, the difference between groups was not significant at follow-up after the incentives were removed (p=0.311). In addition, compared with controls, a significantly higher proportion of participants in the intervention group showed an increase in mean daily steps of ≥1000 (69.4% vs 30.6%, respectively; OR=5.17, 95% CI=1.89 to 14.08). There were no adverse effects from the intervention.

Conclusions: The present results suggest that financial incentives are effective in promoting short-term increases in physical activity.

Trial registration number: UMIN000033276.

Keywords: Japan; financial incentive; randomised controlled trial; walking steps.

Publication types

Randomized Controlled Trial
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Aged
Exercise
Female
Humans
Independent Living
Japan
Male
Middle Aged
Motivation*
Walking*

Associated data

UMIN-CTR/UMIN000033276