UMass Worcester PRC Publications
Title
The Feasibility of Incentivizing Participation in an Online Social Network Weight Loss Program
UMMS Affiliation
UMass Worcester Prevention Research Center; Department of Medicine, Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine
Publication Date
2017-01-04
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Disciplines
Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms | Community Health and Preventive Medicine | Health Communication | Health Psychology | Preventive Medicine | Social Media
Abstract
Engagement in online social network-delivered weight loss interventions is a predictor of weight loss. Incentivizing engagement in a subset of participants may increase group engagement and subsequent weight loss. In a pilot feasibility trial, 56 adults with obesity were randomized to two Facebook-delivered weight loss interventions, one had 10% users incentivized to engage daily and the other did not. We compared conditions on engagement and weight loss, and then compared incentivized users and natural high engagers on weight loss. Participants were 46.3 (SD: 10.3) years and 89% female. The incentivized user condition had greater total engagement (p=0.0361), but weight loss did not differ (p=0.2096). Three natural superusers emerged in each condition. Natural superusers lost more weight than incentivized users (p=0.0358). Natural superusers’ posts elicited more comments than incentivized superusers (p=0.0107). Incentivized superusers may engage differently than natural superusers. Future studies should explore ways to promote engagement in online interventions.
Keywords
social media, weight loss, online social networks, Facebook, engagement
DOI of Published Version
10.24251/HICSS.2017.457
Source
Pagoto S, Waring M, Olendzki E, Oleski J, May C, Evans M. The feasibility of incentivizing participation in an online social network weight loss program. Proceedings of the 50th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. 2017. doi:10.24251/HICSS.2017.457. Link to article on conference website
Journal/Book/Conference Title
Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) 2017
Repository Citation
Pagoto SL, Waring ME, Olendzki E, Oleski JL, May CN, Evans MM. (2017). The Feasibility of Incentivizing Participation in an Online Social Network Weight Loss Program. UMass Worcester PRC Publications. https://doi.org/10.24251/HICSS.2017.457. Retrieved from https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/prc_pubs/70
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Included in
Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms Commons, Community Health and Preventive Medicine Commons, Health Communication Commons, Health Psychology Commons, Preventive Medicine Commons, Social Media Commons
Comments
Presented at the 50th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) 2017.