Physical ActivityNCT07044570
eMOTION: Examining Implicit Attitudes in Physical Activity Engagement
An observational study of Physical Activity and Overweight or Obesity, run by University of Southern California at 1 site in United States.
Trial summary
This early-phase trial will test intervention strategies to influence implicit attitudes towards physical activity and determine whether changes in those mechanisms result in change in physical activity behavior among inactive adults who are overweight or obese. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 18 years and olderHealthy volunteers can take part
- Conditions the study is for
- Physical Activity, Overweight or Obesity, Cancer
- What is being tested?
- Physical Activity Goals mHealth Intervention, TYPE/CONTEXT enhancement and SAVOR enhancement
- Type of treatment
- Lifestyle or therapy programme
- How many people
- 151 participants
- Where
- 1 siteUnited States
- Study dates
- 24 Mar 2025to 1 Jul 2026
- Phase
- Observational
- Are there results?
- None posted in the registry
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 18 years and older
- All sexes
- Healthy volunteers accepted
- Adult, Older adult
Study population: Physically inactive adults with overweight or obesity who are living in the U.S.,
Who may be able to join
- Aged ≥ 18 years
- Reside in the United States
- Self-reported BMI ≥ 25
- Current structured physical activity engagement < 60 minutes per week
- Own a personal smartphone device
- Reside in an area with Internet or Wi-Fi connectivity during the study period
Show all 11Show fewer
- Able to speak and read in English
- Interested and willing to start a physical activity program
- Willing to wear a Fitbit Versa smartwatch provided by the study team everyday continuously (including at work and during physical activity), in place of any Fitbits or smartwatches previously worn, for the duration of the study period
- Able to read the small font on a smartwatch screen without glasses, or willing to carry reading glasses during physical activity for the purpose of reading the smartwatch screen
- Enrolled in the parent eMOTION intervention study
Who cannot join
- Inability to provide informed consent due to cognitive disability
- Inability to engage in one or more key treatment components, including those with medical conditions that preclude physical activity engagement or who cannot wear an accelerometer on the wrist or answer brief surveys on the smartwatch for any reason
- Current pregnancy
- Referred to the study by another participant or from Reddit.
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country.
United States1 site
Univeristy of Southern California
Los Angeles, California, 90032
About this study
Official title: Using Real-Time Data Capture to Examine Implicit Attitudes as Mediators of Physical Activity Adherence in Interventions
This early-phase trial will test intervention strategies to influence implicit attitudes towards physical activity and determine whether changes in those mechanisms result in change in physical activity behavior among inactive adults who are overweight or obese.
Read the detailed description
This ORBIT model phase 1 trial will examine whether implicit attitudes (1) can be experimentally manipulated in real-world settings; and (2) mediate the relationship between interventions and physical activity behavior. A novel physical activity intervention will be optimized by efficiently disentangling the effects of its core component and two enhancement components on affective mechanisms associated with physical activity engagement.
- Conditions
- Physical Activity, Overweight or Obesity, Cancer
- Being tested
- Physical Activity Goals mHealth Intervention, TYPE/CONTEXT enhancement, SAVOR enhancement
- Keywords
- Affective Response, Psychological Needs, Physical Activity, Implicit Attitudes
- Medical subject headings
- Motor Activity, Overweight, Obesity, Neoplasms
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
Physical Activity Goals mHealth InterventionBehavioural
On days participants plan to exercise, they engage in two daily goal sessions (morning and evening). Morning sessions provide an activity goal for the day and ask the participant to create a plan, anticipate barriers, and brainstorm solutions for achieving this goal. The affect-based goal condition asks participants to engage in either (1) a type (50% of daily goals) or (2) a context (50% of daily goals) of physical activity that allows them to experience positive affect. Goals focused on context are randomly generated to suggest that the participant performs activity (1) in a place; (2) in a social situation; or (3) while listening to something that makes them feel good. The intensity-based goal condition asks participants to maintain a certain target heart rate range during physical activity. Starting heart rate reflects the approximate age-adjusted heart rate max, with goals progressively increasing from 55% to 70% heart rate max.
TYPE/CONTEXT enhancementBehavioural
TYPE/CONTEXT augments intervention effects by providing tailored recommendations for activity types and contexts that satisfy personally-important psychological needs as rated by each participant at baseline. Ratings from a crowdsourced panel of adults on Amazon Mechanical Turk will be used to determine the potential for specific activity types and contexts to satisfy psychological needs; our tailoring algorithm will then recommend the corresponding activity type or context while accounting for reported constraints (e.g., ability, access). These details will be incorporated into a tailored recommendation provided to participants each Sunday as they make activity plans for the upcoming week. Specifically, the program will randomly select either type or context (i.e., location, audio, social) recommendations and will rotate every two weeks. For TYPE, participants' top 3 activity types are recommended; for CONTEXT, participants' top 3 activity contexts are recommended.
SAVOR enhancementBehavioural
SAVOR implements a brief savoring exercise on the smartphone that takes place either after the planned physical activity session or during the evening goal session (after the self-monitoring module). Participants will respond to questions that are intended to enhance and prolong positive experiences during physical activity. To trigger attentional deployment, a common savoring strategy that involves intensifying experiences by focusing on them, participants will answer three open-ended prompts. These prompts are drawn from a prompt pool with slightly varied wording to promote a sense of novelty. Savoring prompts will rotate daily and have a day lag built in every week (i.e., Week 1 Monday Savoring Prompts are Week 2 Tuesday Savoring Prompts).
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Affect (no enhancements) > Intensity | Participants receive affect-based goals for the first 8-weeks, then cross-over to receive intensity-based goals for the second 8-weeks. No enhancements are added to the standard mHealth intervention. Receives: Behavioral: Physical Activity Goals mHealth Intervention | |
| Intensity > Affect (no enhancements) | Participants receive intensity-based goals for the first 8-weeks, then cross-over to receive affect-based goals for the second 8-weeks. No enhancements are added to the standard mHealth intervention. Receives: Behavioral: Physical Activity Goals mHealth Intervention | |
| Affect (+ SAVOR + TYPE/CONTEXT) > Intensity | Participants receive affect-based goals for the first 8-weeks. In addition to the standard mHealth intervention, participants engage in both SAVOR and TYPE/CONTEXT enhancements to augment the treatment effects of the affect-based goals condition. Participants then cross-over to receive intensity-based goals for the second 8-weeks. Receives: Behavioral: Physical Activity Goals mHealth Intervention; Behavioral: TYPE/CONTEXT enhancement; Behavioral: SAVOR enhancement | |
| Intensity > Affect (+ SAVOR + TYPE/CONTEXT) | Participants receive intensity-based goals for the first 8-weeks, then cross-over to receive affect-based goals for the second 8-weeks. In addition to the standard mHealth intervention, participants engage in both SAVOR and TYPE/CONTEXT enhancements to augment the treatment effects of the affect-based goals condition. Receives: Behavioral: Physical Activity Goals mHealth Intervention; Behavioral: TYPE/CONTEXT enhancement; Behavioral: SAVOR enhancement | |
| Affect (+SAVOR) > Intensity | Participants receive affect-based goals for the first 8-weeks. In addition to the standard mHealth intervention, participants engage in the SAVOR enhancement to augment the treatment effects of the affect-based goals condition. Participants then cross-over to receive intensity-based goals for the second 8-weeks. Receives: Behavioral: Physical Activity Goals mHealth Intervention; Behavioral: SAVOR enhancement | |
| Intensity > Affect (+SAVOR) | Participants receive intensity-based goals for the first 8-weeks, then cross-over to receive affect-based goals for the second 8-weeks. In addition to the standard mHealth intervention, participants engage in the SAVOR enhancement to augment the treatment effects of the affect-based goals condition. Receives: Behavioral: Physical Activity Goals mHealth Intervention; Behavioral: SAVOR enhancement | |
| Affect (+TYPE/CONTEXT) > Intensity | Participants receive affect-based goals for the first 8-weeks. In addition to the standard mHealth intervention, participants engage in the TYPE/CONTEXT enhancement to augment the treatment effects of the affect-based goals condition. Participants then cross-over to receive intensity-based goals for the second 8-weeks. Receives: Behavioral: Physical Activity Goals mHealth Intervention; Behavioral: TYPE/CONTEXT enhancement | |
| Intensity > Affect (+TYPE/CONTEXT) | Participants receive intensity-based goals for the first 8-weeks, then cross-over to receive affect-based goals for the second 8-weeks. In addition to the standard mHealth intervention, participants engage in the TYPE/CONTEXT enhancement to augment the treatment effects of the affect-based goals condition. Receives: Behavioral: Physical Activity Goals mHealth Intervention; Behavioral: TYPE/CONTEXT enhancement |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Implicit Attitudes
The single-category Implicit Association Test (IAT) will ask participants to match to a conceptual target such as sedentary behavior (e.g., sitting, lying) or physical activity (e.g., walking, running) to affective attributes (e.g., good/bad).If the participant has a strong automatic association between the attribute and conceptual target, then the reaction time will be shorter (representing a favorable implicit attitude). A real-time audibly prompted IAT will be triggered on participants' smartphones in the morning on days a physical activity session is planned (with four reminders sent once every hour if incomplete).
Measured: Up to once daily for weeks 2-9 and weeks 12-19
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted1 Jul 2025
- Study start24 Mar 2025
- Primary completion1 Jul 2026
- Study completion1 Jul 2026
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Other trials for Physical ActivityStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Observational
- Observational model
- Cohort
- Time perspective
- Prospective
- Enrolment
- 151 participants (actual)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- University of Southern California
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- National Cancer Institute (NCI)
- Responsible party
- Principal investigator, Genevieve Dunton, University of Southern California
- Investigators
- Genevieve F Dunton, PhD MPH, Principal investigator, University of Southern California
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT07044570
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- UP-24-00381
- Other IDs
- R03CA292977
- Status last verified
- Oct 2026
- First submitted
- 23 Jun 2025
- Last updated
- 28 Oct 2026
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- No
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 28 Oct 2026. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Using Real-Time Data Capture to Examine Implicit Attitudes as Mediators of Physical Activity Adherence in Interventions
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT07044570
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- UP-24-00381
- Conditions
- Physical Activity, Overweight or Obesity, Cancer
- Keywords
- Affective Response, Psychological Needs, Physical Activity, Implicit Attitudes
- Study type
- Observational
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Enrolment
- 151 participants (actual)
- Lead sponsor
- University of Southern CaliforniaUniversity, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- National Cancer Institute (NCI)
- Study start
- 24 Mar 2025 (actual)
- Primary completion
- 1 Jul 2026 (actual)
- Study completion
- 1 Jul 2026 (actual)
- First posted
- 1 Jul 2025 (actual)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
This early-phase trial will test intervention strategies to influence implicit attitudes towards physical activity and determine whether changes in those mechanisms result in change in physical activity behavior among inactive adults who are overweight or obese.
Detailed description
This ORBIT model phase 1 trial will examine whether implicit attitudes (1) can be experimentally manipulated in real-world settings; and (2) mediate the relationship between interventions and physical activity behavior. A novel physical activity intervention will be optimized by efficiently disentangling the effects of its core component and two enhancement components on affective mechanisms associated with physical activity engagement.
Study design
- Observational model
- Cohort
- Time perspective
- Prospective
- Number of arms
- 8
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| Affect (no enhancements) > Intensity | – | Behavioral: Physical Activity Goals mHealth InterventionParticipants receive affect-based goals for the first 8-weeks, then cross-over to receive intensity-based goals for the second 8-weeks. No enhancements are added to the standard mHealth intervention. |
| Intensity > Affect (no enhancements) | – | Behavioral: Physical Activity Goals mHealth InterventionParticipants receive intensity-based goals for the first 8-weeks, then cross-over to receive affect-based goals for the second 8-weeks. No enhancements are added to the standard mHealth intervention. |
| Affect (+ SAVOR + TYPE/CONTEXT) > Intensity | – | Behavioral: Physical Activity Goals mHealth Intervention, Behavioral: TYPE/CONTEXT enhancement, Behavioral: SAVOR enhancementParticipants receive affect-based goals for the first 8-weeks. In addition to the standard mHealth intervention, participants engage in both SAVOR and TYPE/CONTEXT enhancements to augment the treatment effects of the affect-based goals condition. Participants then cross-over to receive intensity-based goals for the second 8-weeks. |
| Intensity > Affect (+ SAVOR + TYPE/CONTEXT) | – | Behavioral: Physical Activity Goals mHealth Intervention, Behavioral: TYPE/CONTEXT enhancement, Behavioral: SAVOR enhancementParticipants receive intensity-based goals for the first 8-weeks, then cross-over to receive affect-based goals for the second 8-weeks. In addition to the standard mHealth intervention, participants engage in both SAVOR and TYPE/CONTEXT enhancements to augment the treatment effects of the affect-based goals condition. |
| Affect (+SAVOR) > Intensity | – | Behavioral: Physical Activity Goals mHealth Intervention, Behavioral: SAVOR enhancementParticipants receive affect-based goals for the first 8-weeks. In addition to the standard mHealth intervention, participants engage in the SAVOR enhancement to augment the treatment effects of the affect-based goals condition. Participants then cross-over to receive intensity-based goals for the second 8-weeks. |
| Intensity > Affect (+SAVOR) | – | Behavioral: Physical Activity Goals mHealth Intervention, Behavioral: SAVOR enhancementParticipants receive intensity-based goals for the first 8-weeks, then cross-over to receive affect-based goals for the second 8-weeks. In addition to the standard mHealth intervention, participants engage in the SAVOR enhancement to augment the treatment effects of the affect-based goals condition. |
| Affect (+TYPE/CONTEXT) > Intensity | – | Behavioral: Physical Activity Goals mHealth Intervention, Behavioral: TYPE/CONTEXT enhancementParticipants receive affect-based goals for the first 8-weeks. In addition to the standard mHealth intervention, participants engage in the TYPE/CONTEXT enhancement to augment the treatment effects of the affect-based goals condition. Participants then cross-over to receive intensity-based goals for the second 8-weeks. |
| Intensity > Affect (+TYPE/CONTEXT) | – | Behavioral: Physical Activity Goals mHealth Intervention, Behavioral: TYPE/CONTEXT enhancementParticipants receive intensity-based goals for the first 8-weeks, then cross-over to receive affect-based goals for the second 8-weeks. In addition to the standard mHealth intervention, participants engage in the TYPE/CONTEXT enhancement to augment the treatment effects of the affect-based goals condition. |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 18 years and older
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepted
- Age groups
- Adult, Older adult
- Study population
- Physically inactive adults with overweight or obesity who are living in the U.S.,
Key inclusion criteria (11 listed)
- Aged ≥ 18 years
- Reside in the United States
- Self-reported BMI ≥ 25
- Current structured physical activity engagement < 60 minutes per week
- Own a personal smartphone device
Key exclusion criteria (4 listed)
- Inability to provide informed consent due to cognitive disability
- Inability to engage in one or more key treatment components, including those with medical conditions that preclude physical activity engagement or who cannot wear an accelerometer on the wrist or answer brief surveys on the smartwatch for any reason
- Current pregnancy
- Referred to the study by another participant or from Reddit.
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| Physical Activity Goals mHealth InterventionOn days participants plan to exercise, they engage in two daily goal sessions (morning and evening). Morning sessions provide an activity goal for the day and ask the participant to create a plan, anticipate barriers, and brainstorm solutions for achieving this goal. The affect-based goal condition asks participants to engage in either (1) a type (50% of daily goals) or (2) a context (50% of daily goals) of physical activity that allows them to experience positive affect. Goals focused on context are randomly generated to suggest that the participant performs activity (1) in a place; (2) in a social situation; or (3) while listening to something that makes them feel good. The intensity-based goal condition asks participants to maintain a certain target heart rate range during physical activity. Starting heart rate reflects the approximate age-adjusted heart rate max, with goals progressively increasing from 55% to 70% heart rate max. | Behavioural | Affect (+ SAVOR + TYPE/CONTEXT) > Intensity, Affect (+SAVOR) > Intensity, Affect (+TYPE/CONTEXT) > Intensity, Affect (no enhancements) > Intensity, Intensity > Affect (+ SAVOR + TYPE/CONTEXT), Intensity > Affect (+SAVOR), Intensity > Affect (+TYPE/CONTEXT), Intensity > Affect (no enhancements) |
| TYPE/CONTEXT enhancementTYPE/CONTEXT augments intervention effects by providing tailored recommendations for activity types and contexts that satisfy personally-important psychological needs as rated by each participant at baseline. Ratings from a crowdsourced panel of adults on Amazon Mechanical Turk will be used to determine the potential for specific activity types and contexts to satisfy psychological needs; our tailoring algorithm will then recommend the corresponding activity type or context while accounting for reported constraints (e.g., ability, access). These details will be incorporated into a tailored recommendation provided to participants each Sunday as they make activity plans for the upcoming week. Specifically, the program will randomly select either type or context (i.e., location, audio, social) recommendations and will rotate every two weeks. For TYPE, participants' top 3 activity types are recommended; for CONTEXT, participants' top 3 activity contexts are recommended. | Behavioural | Affect (+ SAVOR + TYPE/CONTEXT) > Intensity, Affect (+TYPE/CONTEXT) > Intensity, Intensity > Affect (+ SAVOR + TYPE/CONTEXT), Intensity > Affect (+TYPE/CONTEXT) |
| SAVOR enhancementSAVOR implements a brief savoring exercise on the smartphone that takes place either after the planned physical activity session or during the evening goal session (after the self-monitoring module). Participants will respond to questions that are intended to enhance and prolong positive experiences during physical activity. To trigger attentional deployment, a common savoring strategy that involves intensifying experiences by focusing on them, participants will answer three open-ended prompts. These prompts are drawn from a prompt pool with slightly varied wording to promote a sense of novelty. Savoring prompts will rotate daily and have a day lag built in every week (i.e., Week 1 Monday Savoring Prompts are Week 2 Tuesday Savoring Prompts). | Behavioural | Affect (+ SAVOR + TYPE/CONTEXT) > Intensity, Affect (+SAVOR) > Intensity, Intensity > Affect (+ SAVOR + TYPE/CONTEXT), Intensity > Affect (+SAVOR) |
Primary outcome
Implicit Attitudes
Time frame: Up to once daily for weeks 2-9 and weeks 12-19
The single-category Implicit Association Test (IAT) will ask participants to match to a conceptual target such as sedentary behavior (e.g., sitting, lying) or physical activity (e.g., walking, running) to affective attributes (e.g., good/bad).If the participant has a strong automatic association between the attribute and conceptual target, then the reaction time will be shorter (representing a favorable implicit attitude). A real-time audibly prompted IAT will be triggered on participants' smartphones in the morning on days a physical activity session is planned (with four reminders sent once every hour if incomplete).
Results and safety
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 28 Oct 2026.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: No
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Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part. This study is not recruiting at the moment.
Genevieve F Dunton, PhD MPH principal investigator
University of Southern California
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
An observational study of Physical Activity and Overweight or Obesity, run by University of Southern California at 1 site in United States.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 11 inclusion and 4 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 28 Oct 2026. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Implicit Attitudes (time frame: Up to once daily for weeks 2-9 and weeks 12-19). It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 28 Oct 2026.