Email reminders and gym attendance

Last registered on December 14, 2016

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Email reminders and gym attendance
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0001847
Initial registration date
December 14, 2016

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
December 14, 2016, 5:31 AM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
University of Gothenburg

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2016-12-14
End date
2017-08-31
Secondary IDs
Abstract
We investigate whether regular email reminders can stimulate gym attendance. We will send out weekly emails to a random sample of gym members of a large gym facility (with multiple locations) during a period of 3 months. In addition we collect a measure of interest in email reminders prior to the intervention. We investigate the effect separately for those that do and those that do not indicate interest in reminders. We will collect detailed attendance data during the intervention period, as well as during three subsequent months to investigate long run effects (habit formation).
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Habla, Wolfgang and Paul Muller. 2016. "Email reminders and gym attendance." AEA RCT Registry. December 14. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.1847-1.0
Former Citation
Habla, Wolfgang and Paul Muller. 2016. "Email reminders and gym attendance." AEA RCT Registry. December 14. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/1847/history/12401
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2017-01-08
Intervention End Date
2017-04-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
- Gym attendance (daily)
- Type of attendance (free training, or group classes)
- Signing up to classes/cancelling of class subscription
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The sample contains all individuals that bought a 12 months gym membership between July 1 and December 1 2016. We observe whether these individuals had a previous membership in the preceding 6 months. Both new and existing members will be included in the analysis.

All of these participants will receive an email in the middle of December, asking them whether they think email reminders could be a useful mechanism to facilitate reaching ones exercising goal. The response to this email allows us to distinguish between individuals that do and those that do not expect to benefit from reminders.

Starting from the beginning of January, 50% of the participants will receive weekly email reminders that contains short messages regarding gym attendance. Participants can at any time unsubscribe if they do not wish to receive any further messages. The reminders are sent during three months. The control group (the other 50%) does not receive any email reminders during this period, although they will receive a newsletter that is sent by the Gym approximately once every 6 weeks.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization will be performed in two separate sub-samples: the group that indicated interest in email reminders, and the group that did not indicate interest in email reminders. In both groups 50% will be assigned to the treatment of email reminders. Randomization will be done by computer.
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
2500 individuals
Sample size: planned number of observations
2500 individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
1250 individuals in treatment group
1250 individuals in control group
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Ethical committee department of Economics
IRB Approval Date
2016-12-09
IRB Approval Number
n/a

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials