Personal financial incentives can change habitual health-related behaviors and help reduce health inequalities .
However , their role in reducing disease burden is potentially limited given current evidence that effects dissipate beyond three months post-incentive removal
OBJECTIVES Uncertainty remains about whether personal financial incentives could achieve sustained changes in health-related behaviors that would reduce the fast-growing global non-communicable disease burden .
This review aims to estimate whether : i. financial incentives achieve sustained changes in smoking , eating , alcohol consumption and physical activity ; ii .
effectiveness is modified by ( a ) the target behavior , ( b ) incentive value and attainment certainty , ( c ) recipients ' deprivation level .
The effects of contingent payment and frequent workplace monitoring on smoking abstinence.
This study examined the relative contribution of contingent payment and worksite CO monitoring to the long-term maintenance of smoking abstinence .  Forty-seven hospital employees who had abstained from smoking for five days ( confirmed by CO analysis ) were r and omly assigned to one of three follow-up groups : ( a ) contingent payment/frequent monitoring ( n = 17 ) ; ( b ) noncontingent payment/frequent monitoring ( n = 16 ) ; or ( c ) non-contingent payment/infrequent monitoring ( n = 14 ) . Contingent payment combined with frequent CO monitoring delayed but did not ultimately prevent subjects relapse to smoking by the end of the six month follow-up . Contingent subjects maintained CO values less than or equal to 11 ppm significantly longer than did either the Non-contingent or the Control subjects ( p = .03 ) . CO monitoring alone had no effect on abstinence outcomes ; both Noncontingent and Control subjects showed high rates of early relapse
Personal financial incentives can change habitual health-related behaviors and help reduce health inequalities .
However , their role in reducing disease burden is potentially limited given current evidence that effects dissipate beyond three months post-incentive removal
OBJECTIVES Uncertainty remains about whether personal financial incentives could achieve sustained changes in health-related behaviors that would reduce the fast-growing global non-communicable disease burden .
This review aims to estimate whether : i. financial incentives achieve sustained changes in smoking , eating , alcohol consumption and physical activity ; ii .
effectiveness is modified by ( a ) the target behavior , ( b ) incentive value and attainment certainty , ( c ) recipients ' deprivation level .