Effects of customer relationship management (CRM) strategies and socio-cognitive constructs on the physical activity of individuals with arthritis over time

Fiona J Newton; Tilahun N Haregu; Joshua D Newton; Robert Donovan; Ajay Mahal; Ruth Mackenzie-Stewart; Michael T Ewing; Adrian Bauman; Karine E Manera; Ben J Smith

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0292692

Effects of customer relationship management (CRM) strategies and socio-cognitive constructs on the physical activity of individuals with arthritis over time

PLoS One. 2023 Oct 10;18(10):e0292692. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0292692. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Fiona J Newton¹, Tilahun N Haregu², Joshua D Newton³, Robert Donovan⁴, Ajay Mahal², Ruth Mackenzie-Stewart⁵, Michael T Ewing^{3

6

7}, Adrian Bauman⁸, Karine E Manera⁸, Ben J Smith^{8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Marketing, Monash Business School, Monash University, Frankston, Victoria, Australia.
² Nossal Institute for Global Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
³ Department of Marketing, Deakin Business School, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, Australia.
⁴ School of Human Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
⁵ School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia.
⁶ Faculty of Business, Law & Arts, Southern Cross University, Gold Coast Campus, Bilinga, Queensland, Australia.
⁷ Distinguished visiting professor, Department of Marketing, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa.
⁸ School of Public Health, Level 6, The Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
⁹ School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Abstract

Background: Regular physical activity is important for arthritis self-management and could be promoted through tailoring community leisure and fitness centers' customer-relationship management (CRM) strategies.

Objectives: This study investigates the influence of two CRM strategies on individuals with arthritis reaching or maintaining two moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) thresholds (≥150 and ≥45 minutes/week) from baseline-to-12 months and 12-to-24 months as well as mean changes in total minutes/week of MVPA. It also explores time-dependent variations in the influence of socio-cognitive variables on MVPA outcomes.

Methods: Survey data from 374 participants with arthritis in a two-year randomized controlled trial (control versus two CRM strategies: IncentiveOnly and Incentive+Support) were used. Participants reported measures of physical activity participation, socio-cognitive decision-making, mental and physical wellbeing, friendship, community connectedness, sense of trust in others, and demographics.

Findings/discussion: Receiving the Incentive+Support CRM strategy (versus control) increased participants' likelihood of reaching/maintaining both physical activity thresholds from 12-to-24 months (≥150 MVPA minutes/week, p < .001; ≥45 MVPA minutes/week, p < .032) but not from baseline-to-12 months. However, receiving the IncentiveOnly CRM strategy (versus control) did not predict reaching/maintaining these thresholds. Importantly, socio-cognitive decision-making variables' influence on reaching/maintaining these MVPA thresholds varied over time, suggesting CRM strategies may require further tailoring based on time-specific profiles. Perhaps because of new facility induced excitement, the mean change in total MVPA minutes/week for the control group significantly increased (26.8 minute/week, p = .014, 95% CI [5.5, 48.0]) from baseline-to-12 months, but subsequently declined by 11.4 minute/week from 12-to-24 months (p = .296, 95% CI [-32.7, 9.9]). Mean changes in total MVPA minutes/week were non-significant for those receiving IncentiveOnly content but significant for those receiving Incentive+Support content: baseline-to-12 months (38.2 minute/week increase, p = .023, 95% CI [4.9, 71.4]) and baseline-to-24-months (45.9 minute/week increase, p = .007, 95% CI [12.7, 79.1]).

Copyright: © 2023 Newton et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Publication types

Randomized Controlled Trial
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Arthritis* / therapy
Cognition
Exercise* / psychology
Humans
Motivation
Surveys and Questionnaires

Grants and funding

This study was funded by Australian Research Council Linkage Grant LP130101005 (www.arc.gov.au), and by Frankston City Council (www.frankston.vic.gov.au). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.