Moving people from Inactive to Active in Hampshire

In 2017 BetterPoints ran a physical activity behaviour change programme across Hampshire in partnership with Energise Me, the County Sports Partnership. We used rewards and incentives to encourage Hampshire residents to become more active and reach the Government recommended level of 150 minutes of physical activity per week.  

Participants tracked their walking, running and cycling using the free, locally branded, BetterPoints app. They were rewarded with BetterPoints which could be exchanged for vouchers or donated to charities and good causes. Over 700 people actively took part in the programme.

In early 2018 we launched a 12-week small-scale, targeted intervention with the most inactive participants who lived in Gosport & Havant. The purpose of this was to investigate the effect of increasing rewards and message frequency – do more frequent messages and higher rewards provide more motivation for the most inactive?

An enhanced matrix of rewards and messaging was designed (including prize draws and daily timed challenges) to engage participants, enhance motivation, increase activity levels and maintain engagement.

57 people actively took part – all had reported in the baseline survey that they did less than 60 minutes of physical activity per week. Almost all of them took part in an in-app survey about health and weight at the start of the 12 weeks.

• 45% had heart problems, diabetes, high blood pressure, depression or anxiety 
• 84%  were ‘Overweight’ or ‘Very Overweight’

Results:

• 67% reached 150 minutes consistently for at least 10 weeks, based on their tracked verified activities. 
• 98% said they were motivated to carry on being active
• 90% of people with long term conditions said they felt the programme had improved those conditions
• 69% of those who were ‘Overweight’ or ‘Very Overweight’ felt using the app had helped them lose weight 

It’s clear that some people need more encouragement than others to get them moving. It seems that enhanced rewards and more regular messaging encourage the most inactive to become active, compared to standard rewards.

The flexibility of the BetterPoints system means that within any programme we can offer different rewards and messaging to different groups, giving a targeted interventions. This helps our clients target resources where they are most needed.