Our framework should help research ers and policy-makers identify the most effective incentive configurations for helping individuals adopt healthy behaviours
Financial incentive interventions are increasingly used as a method of encouraging healthy behaviours , from attending for vaccinations to taking part in regular physical activity .
There is a growing body of research on the effectiveness of financial incentive interventions for health behaviours .
Wide variations in the nature of these interventions make it difficult to draw firm conclusions about what makes an effective incentive , for whom and under what circumstances .
Whilst there has been some recognition of the theoretical complexity of financial incentive interventions for health behaviours , there is no framework that categorises these interventions .
This limits the research community 's ability to clearly establish which components of financial incentives interventions are more and less effective , and how these components might interact to enable behavioural change .
We propose a framework for describing health-promoting financial incentive interventions .
The use of contingency management and motivational/skills-building therapy to treat young adults with marijuana dependence.
Marijuana-dependent young adults ( N = 136 ) , all referred by the criminal justice system , were r and omized to 1 of 4 treatment conditions : a motivational/skills-building intervention ( motivational enhancement therapy/cognitive-behavioral therapy ; MET/CBT ) plus incentives contingent on session attendance or su bmi ssion of marijuana-free urine specimens ( contingency management ; CM ) , MET/CBT without CM , individual drug counseling ( DC ) plus CM , and DC without CM . There was a significant main effect of  CM on treatment retention and marijuana-free urine specimens . Moreover , the combination of MET/CBT plus CM was significantly more effective than MET/CBT without CM or DC plus CM , which were in turn more effective than DC without CM for treatment attendance and percentage of marijuana-free urine specimens . Participants assigned to MET/CBT continued to reduce the frequency of their marijuana use through a 6-month follow-up
Our framework should help research ers and policy-makers identify the most effective incentive configurations for helping individuals adopt healthy behaviours
Financial incentive interventions are increasingly used as a method of encouraging healthy behaviours , from attending for vaccinations to taking part in regular physical activity .
There is a growing body of research on the effectiveness of financial incentive interventions for health behaviours .
Wide variations in the nature of these interventions make it difficult to draw firm conclusions about what makes an effective incentive , for whom and under what circumstances .
Whilst there has been some recognition of the theoretical complexity of financial incentive interventions for health behaviours , there is no framework that categorises these interventions .
This limits the research community 's ability to clearly establish which components of financial incentives interventions are more and less effective , and how these components might interact to enable behavioural change .
We propose a framework for describing health-promoting financial incentive interventions .