Completed

mActivemActive: A Blinded, Randomized mHealth Trial of Digital Activity Tracking and Smart Texting to Promote Physical Activity

What is being tested

Digital Activity Tracker

+ Smart Text Messaging

DeviceOther

Who is being recruted

Behavior

+ Motor Activity

From 18 to 69 Years

+7 Eligibility Criteria

See all eligibility criteria

How is the trial designed

Prevention Study

Placebo-Controlled

Interventional

Study Start: January 2014

See protocol details

Summary

Principal SponsorJohns Hopkins University

Last updated: January 27, 2026

Sourced from a government-validated database.Claim as a partner

Study start date: January 1, 2014

Actual date on which the first participant was enrolled.

Using an innovative, convenient, mHealth trial design, this pilot study aims to test the feasibility of a seamless model of information flow integrating digital activity tracker information with a mobile phone texting system to deliver a technology-enhanced intervention that does not require in-person follow-up. The investigators hypothesize that: 1. individuals overestimate their physical activity, especially that done at work. 2. biofeedback from an activity tracker can increase physical activity via increasing self-awareness. 3. "smart" text message feedback can increase physical activity via personalizing health coaching. Digitalized activity tracking will use the Fitbug Orb, which syncs via Bluetooth with one's smartphone. It is a display-free triaxial accelerometer, allowing one to blind participants to numeric feedback. Text messaging will use Reify Health's "smart" platform for personalized, interactive texting by an automated and repeatable algorithm. Texting will be informed by real-time activity information. Potential advantages of the trial strategy include elimination of attendance at in-person sessions, personalization of health coaching, more continuous patient contact; inexpensive intervention, the ultimate ability to scale our intervention to larger target populations. After initial pilot trial completion, additional study will include long-term physical activity follow-up of participants and focus groups.

Official TitlemActive: A Blinded, Randomized mHealth Trial of Digital Activity Tracking and Smart Texting to Promote Physical Activity

NCT01917812

Principal SponsorJohns Hopkins University

Last updated: January 27, 2026

Sourced from a government-validated database.Claim as a partner

Protocol

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

Design Details

48 patients to be enrolled

Total number of participants that the clinical trial aims to recruit.

Prevention Study

Prevention studies aim to stop a disease from developing. They often involve people at risk and test things like vaccines, lifestyle changes, or preventive medications.

Eligibility

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria: person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Conditions

Criteria

Any sex

Biological sex of participants that are eligible to enroll.

From 18 to 69 Years

Range of ages for which participants are eligible to join.

Healthy volunteers not allowed

If individuals who are healthy and do not have the condition being studied can participate.

Conditions

Pathology

BehaviorMotor Activity

Criteria

3 inclusion criteria required to participate

Presenting to cardiology clinic

Aged 18-69 years

User of a compatible smartphone

4 exclusion criteria prevent from participating

Already using an activity tracker

Preferred form of activity is not measured by an activity tracker(swimming, yoga, ice skating, stair master, or activities on wheels such as bicycling or rollerblading)

Prohibited from normal activity due to wheelchair bound status, bed bound status, reliance on a cane/walker, activity-limiting pulmonary disease, activity-limiting angina, activity-limiting osteoarthritis, or other condition.

3 days or more of moderate or vigorous activity during leisure time for 30 minutes of more per day by International Physical Activity Questionnaire

Study Plan

Find out more about all the medication administered in this study, their detailed description and what they involve.

Treatment Groups

Study Objectives

3 intervention groups are designated in this study

33.333% chance of being blinded to the placebo group

Treatment Groups

Group I

Placebo

Blinded Digital Activity Tracker = Group wears the tracker but is blinded to the numeric physical activity feedback information provided by the tracker.

Group II

Experimental

Unblinded Digital Activity Tracker = Group unblinded to the numeric physical activity feedback information provided by the digital activity tracker. No Smart Text Messaging = Group does not receive personalized, health coaching via "smart" text messages. Note that the study occurred over two study phases after the 1-week blinded run-in. In the first 2-week phase, participants were randomized to unblinded or blinded tracking. In the second 2-week phase, the unblinded participants were randomized to receive smart texts or no texts.

Group III

Experimental

Unblinded Digital Activity Tracker = Group unblinded to the numeric physical activity feedback information provided by the digital activity tracker. Smart Text Messaging = Group receives personalized, health coaching via "smart" text messages. Note that the study occurred over two study phases after the 1-week blinded run-in. In the first 2-week phase, participants were randomized to unblinded or blinded tracking. In the second 2-week phase, the unblinded participants were randomized to receive smart texts or no texts.

Study Objectives

Primary Objectives

Secondary Objectives

Study Centers

These are the hospitals, clinics, or research facilities where the trial is being conducted. You can find the location closest to you and its status.

This study has 1 location

Suspended

Johns Hopkins University

Baltimore, United StatesOpen Johns Hopkins University in Google Maps

CompletedOne Study Center