Tech

Physical Activity Gains Last When Financial Rewards Fade

Published

12 months ago

November 22, 2023

After a financial health incentive program in Canada was scaled back following more than a year of full funding, improvements in physical activity dropped by about 200 steps per day, which was considered a statistically significant but not clinically meaningful decline, according to a new study.

For the most part, the authors concluded, physical activity can be maintained with less frequent and less costly financial incentive reinforcement, once it has been established.

Sean Spilsbury

“This study has real-world implications for government and corporate wellness programs that provide financial health incentives, like paying people to walk more,” lead author Sean Spilsbury, senior analyst at the Canadian Institute for Health Information in Toronto, told Medscape Medical News. Spilsbury conducted the research in his previous role as a kinesiology research assistant and graduate student at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada.

“These programs can be super expensive, especially when delivered on a population scale (whole cities or countries) and for longer periods (more than a year),” he said.

The study was published online November 8 in JAMA Network Open.

Boosting Physical Activity

From 2016 to 2019, three provincial governments in Canada — those of British Columbia, Ontario, and Newfoundland and Labrador — offered financial incentives for citizens to maintain physical activity goals through a mobile health app called Carrot. The app offered 4 cents CAD per day for completing personalized and adaptive daily step count goals, as well as team-based goals worth 40 cents CAD per week. Although the financial incentives were small, they were provided instantaneously as loyalty points and could be redeemed for items such as movie tickets or gas, the authors noted.

In December 2018, due to fiscal constraints, Ontario withdrew financial incentives for personalized daily physical activity goals, which represented a 90% reduction in incentives for physical activity earnings. The incentives remained in British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador, however.

To examine this change as a naturally occurring experiment, Spilsbury and colleagues designed a 25-week quasi-experimental case-control study, defining the intervention period as the 12 weeks before incomplete financial incentive withdrawal in Ontario, which spanned from early September to early December 2018. Since the Canadian winter holiday season could have influenced daily step counts, the weeks between early December through early January were treated as a pseudo-washout period to allow physical activity behaviors to stabilize. The research team examined the 8 weeks between early January and early March to understand the effects of financial incentive withdrawal on physical activity in Ontario.

Among 584,760 participants, all three provinces saw a downward trend from September to December, reflecting the seasonal declines expected during the colder winter season. Additional decreases occurred by March. The most pronounced decline was seen in Ontario: an average decrease of 367 steps per day, compared with a drop of 169 steps per day in British Columbia and an average drop of 93 steps per day in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The decline was most pronounced among highly engaged users in Ontario (328 steps per day), compared with low-engagement users (211 steps per day). In addition, physically active users in Ontario had a decline of 232 steps per day.

Physically inactive users were the only group in Ontario to show an increase, inching up 107 steps per day on average. Similarly, physically inactive users showed increases in British Columbia (234 steps per day) and Newfoundland and Labrador (187 steps per day).

Overall, incomplete financial incentive withdrawal led to modest physical activity declines of about 100 to 300 steps per day, depending on the analytical approach and the subgroup analyzed. However, the reductions are not clinically meaningful, the authors wrote, and represent a fraction of the initial increase after a year of exposure to the app — a jump of about 900 steps per day in general and 1800 steps per day among physically inactive users.

“Our study suggests incentives can be mostly scaled back without untoward effects on physical activity,” said Spilsburg. “This information may be relevant for government and corporate decision makers working within finite wellness program budgets.”

Sustainable financial incentive models are needed, Spilsbury and colleagues wrote. Without randomized clinical trials in this area, however, researchers must evaluate naturally occurring program changes to understand how financial reductions may affect interventions. In this case, for instance, modest declines may have occurred because the rewards for daily physical activity achievements were provided for more than a year before withdrawal began, which could be long enough for habit formation.

Long-Term Sustainability

Matthew Kwan, PhD

Commenting on the findings for Medscape, Matthew Kwan, PhD, associate professor of child and youth studies at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, and adjunct professor of family medicine and kinesiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, said, “We know that when people initiate exercise, maintenance can be a big issue, with dropout rates of more than 50% in the first 6 months. It’s promising that this study showed initial increases in activity and a mitigation of the decreases that typically happen.”

Kwan, who wasn’t involved with this study, researches physical activity and behavioral changes throughout childhood and during the transition after high school. He and colleagues have created intervention programs through public-private partnerships to build physical literacy, motor competencies, and self-confidence in patients undergoing various life transitions.

“The question this raises is about the long-term sustainability of these models,” he said. “Although the financial incentives are promising, we need to figure out a more sustainable way this could work, where we’re not relying on government funding to get people to move,” such as insurance company incentives, corporate wellness programs, and public-private partnerships.

The study was funded by the government of Ontario through the Ontario Graduate Scholarship. Spilsbury and Kwan reported no relevant financial relationships.

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Tech

Ottawa orders TikTok’s Canadian arm to be dissolved

Published

4 days ago

November 6, 2024

Anne Joseph

The federal government is ordering the dissolution of TikTok’s Canadian business after a national security review of the Chinese company behind the social media platform, but stopped short of ordering people to stay off the app.

Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced the government’s “wind up” demand Wednesday, saying it is meant to address “risks” related to ByteDance Ltd.’s establishment of TikTok Technology Canada Inc.

“The decision was based on the information and evidence collected over the course of the review and on the advice of Canada’s security and intelligence community and other government partners,” he said in a statement.

The announcement added that the government is not blocking Canadians’ access to the TikTok application or their ability to create content.

However, it urged people to “adopt good cybersecurity practices and assess the possible risks of using social media platforms and applications, including how their information is likely to be protected, managed, used and shared by foreign actors, as well as to be aware of which country’s laws apply.”

Champagne’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment seeking details about what evidence led to the government’s dissolution demand, how long ByteDance has to comply and why the app is not being banned.

A TikTok spokesperson said in a statement that the shutdown of its Canadian offices will mean the loss of hundreds of well-paying local jobs.

“We will challenge this order in court,” the spokesperson said.

“The TikTok platform will remain available for creators to find an audience, explore new interests and for businesses to thrive.”

The federal Liberals ordered a national security review of TikTok in September 2023, but it was not public knowledge until The Canadian Press reported in March that it was investigating the company.

At the time, it said the review was based on the expansion of a business, which it said constituted the establishment of a new Canadian entity. It declined to provide any further details about what expansion it was reviewing.

A government database showed a notification of new business from TikTok in June 2023. It said Network Sense Ventures Ltd. in Toronto and Vancouver would engage in “marketing, advertising, and content/creator development activities in relation to the use of the TikTok app in Canada.”

Even before the review, ByteDance and TikTok were lightning rod for privacy and safety concerns because Chinese national security laws compel organizations in the country to assist with intelligence gathering.

Such concerns led the U.S. House of Representatives to pass a bill in March designed to ban TikTok unless its China-based owner sells its stake in the business.

Champagne’s office has maintained Canada’s review was not related to the U.S. bill, which has yet to pass.

Canada’s review was carried out through the Investment Canada Act, which allows the government to investigate any foreign investment with potential to might harm national security.

While cabinet can make investors sell parts of the business or shares, Champagne has said the act doesn’t allow him to disclose details of the review.

Wednesday’s dissolution order was made in accordance with the act.

The federal government banned TikTok from its mobile devices in February 2023 following the launch of an investigation into the company by federal and provincial privacy commissioners.

— With files from Anja Karadeglija in Ottawa

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.

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Health

Here is how to prepare your online accounts for when you die

Published

2 weeks ago

October 24, 2024

Anne Joseph

LONDON (AP) — Most people have accumulated a pile of data — selfies, emails, videos and more — on their social media and digital accounts over their lifetimes. What happens to it when we die?

It’s wise to draft a will spelling out who inherits your physical assets after you’re gone, but don’t forget to take care of your digital estate too. Friends and family might treasure files and posts you’ve left behind, but they could get lost in digital purgatory after you pass away unless you take some simple steps.

Here’s how you can prepare your digital life for your survivors:

Apple

The iPhone maker lets you nominate a “ legacy contact ” who can access your Apple account’s data after you die. The company says it’s a secure way to give trusted people access to photos, files and messages. To set it up you’ll need an Apple device with a fairly recent operating system — iPhones and iPads need iOS or iPadOS 15.2 and MacBooks needs macOS Monterey 12.1.

For iPhones, go to settings, tap Sign-in & Security and then Legacy Contact. You can name one or more people, and they don’t need an Apple ID or device.

You’ll have to share an access key with your contact. It can be a digital version sent electronically, or you can print a copy or save it as a screenshot or PDF.

Take note that there are some types of files you won’t be able to pass on — including digital rights-protected music, movies and passwords stored in Apple’s password manager. Legacy contacts can only access a deceased user’s account for three years before Apple deletes the account.

Google

Google takes a different approach with its Inactive Account Manager, which allows you to share your data with someone if it notices that you’ve stopped using your account.

When setting it up, you need to decide how long Google should wait — from three to 18 months — before considering your account inactive. Once that time is up, Google can notify up to 10 people.

You can write a message informing them you’ve stopped using the account, and, optionally, include a link to download your data. You can choose what types of data they can access — including emails, photos, calendar entries and YouTube videos.

There’s also an option to automatically delete your account after three months of inactivity, so your contacts will have to download any data before that deadline.

Facebook and Instagram

Some social media platforms can preserve accounts for people who have died so that friends and family can honor their memories.

When users of Facebook or Instagram die, parent company Meta says it can memorialize the account if it gets a “valid request” from a friend or family member. Requests can be submitted through an online form.

The social media company strongly recommends Facebook users add a legacy contact to look after their memorial accounts. Legacy contacts can do things like respond to new friend requests and update pinned posts, but they can’t read private messages or remove or alter previous posts. You can only choose one person, who also has to have a Facebook account.

You can also ask Facebook or Instagram to delete a deceased user’s account if you’re a close family member or an executor. You’ll need to send in documents like a death certificate.

TikTok

The video-sharing platform says that if a user has died, people can submit a request to memorialize the account through the settings menu. Go to the Report a Problem section, then Account and profile, then Manage account, where you can report a deceased user.

Once an account has been memorialized, it will be labeled “Remembering.” No one will be able to log into the account, which prevents anyone from editing the profile or using the account to post new content or send messages.

It’s not possible to nominate a legacy contact on Elon Musk’s social media site. But family members or an authorized person can submit a request to deactivate a deceased user’s account.

Passwords

Besides the major online services, you’ll probably have dozens if not hundreds of other digital accounts that your survivors might need to access. You could just write all your login credentials down in a notebook and put it somewhere safe. But making a physical copy presents its own vulnerabilities. What if you lose track of it? What if someone finds it?

Instead, consider a password manager that has an emergency access feature. Password managers are digital vaults that you can use to store all your credentials. Some, like Keeper,Bitwarden and NordPass, allow users to nominate one or more trusted contacts who can access their keys in case of an emergency such as a death.

But there are a few catches: Those contacts also need to use the same password manager and you might have to pay for the service.

___

Is there a tech challenge you need help figuring out? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your questions.

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Tech

Google’s partnership with AI startup Anthropic faces a UK competition investigation

Published

2 weeks ago

October 24, 2024

Anne Joseph

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s competition watchdog said Thursday it’s opening a formal investigation into Google’s partnership with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic.

The Competition and Markets Authority said it has “sufficient information” to launch an initial probe after it sought input earlier this year on whether the deal would stifle competition.

The CMA has until Dec. 19 to decide whether to approve the deal or escalate its investigation.

“Google is committed to building the most open and innovative AI ecosystem in the world,” the company said. “Anthropic is free to use multiple cloud providers and does, and we don’t demand exclusive tech rights.”

San Francisco-based Anthropic was founded in 2021 by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, who previously worked at ChatGPT maker OpenAI. The company has focused on increasing the safety and reliability of AI models. Google reportedly agreed last year to make a multibillion-dollar investment in Anthropic, which has a popular chatbot named Claude.

Anthropic said it’s cooperating with the regulator and will provide “the complete picture about Google’s investment and our commercial collaboration.”

“We are an independent company and none of our strategic partnerships or investor relationships diminish the independence of our corporate governance or our freedom to partner with others,” it said in a statement.

The U.K. regulator has been scrutinizing a raft of AI deals as investment money floods into the industry to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom. Last month it cleared Anthropic’s $4 billion deal with Amazon and it has also signed off on Microsoft’s deals with two other AI startups, Inflection and Mistral.

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