Virtual Fitness Buddy Ecosystem
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT03524183. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Official title
The Virtual Fitness Buddy Ecosystem: Using Digital Technology to Promote and Sustain Moderate-to-Vigorous Intensity Physical Activity in Children
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
The VFB Ecosystem capitalizes on digital technologies' ability to connect parents and children, allowing parents to actively support their child's physical activity, even when parents cannot be present. The VFB is a kiosk-based system that houses a virtual dog programmed to allow children to set self-determined physical activity goals. The children wear Fitbits while performing physical activity. Using the unique data embedded in the Fitbit, the kiosk is able to detect each individual child and automatically connect him or her to a unique, personalized virtual dog. Physical activity data is transmitted automatically from the Fitbit to the kiosk when the child approaches, and the virtual dog provides accurate evaluations of whether the child met the self-determined physical activity goal, offering words of encouragement and physical activity support. The virtual pet functions as a personalized fitness buddy to encourage children to set and meet physical activity goals, promote physical activity self-efficacy, and foster mutually supportive relationships among children, parents, and the virtual pet. This will be particularly helpful for children who receive insufficient amounts of social support in their current environment. Concurrently, the kiosk sends a text message to parents on the child's physical activity progress. Parents are then able to send words of encouragement and communicate with their children via the kiosk, using the text messaging feature of their mobile phones. Thus, even when the parent is not with the child, the virtual pet is designed to serve as a coordinating focus for facilitating parent-child communication. Parents will also receive text messages from the kiosk with a security code to access a website that provides detailed records of the child's physical activity over time.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT03524183
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase 2
- Enrollment
- 964 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 6 Years to 10 Years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepts healthy volunteers
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Aug 26, 2018
- Primary completion
- Jun 29, 2024
- Completion
- Jun 29, 2024
- Last update posted
- Dec 26, 2024
2018 – 2024
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| YMCA of Metropolitan Atlanta | Atlanta | Georgia | 30303 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT03524183, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Dec 26, 2024 · Synced Sep 2, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT03524183 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.