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 .
A pilot study on voucher-based incentives to promote abstinence from cigarette smoking during pregnancy and postpartum.
We report results from a pilot study examining the use of vouchers redeemable for retail items as incentives for smoking cessation during pregnancy and postpartum . Of 100 study -eligible women who were still smoking upon entering prenatal care , 58 were recruited from university-based and community obstetric practice s to participate in a smoking cessation study . Participants were assigned to either contingent or noncontingent voucher conditions . Vouchers were available during pregnancy and for 12 weeks postpartum . In the contingent condition , vouchers were earned for biochemically verified smoking abstinence . In the noncontingent condition , vouchers were earned independent of smoking status . Abstinence monitoring and associated voucher delivery was conducted daily during the initial 5 days of the cessation effort , gradually decreased to every other week antepartum , increased to once weekly during the initial 4 weeks postpartum , and then decreased again to every other week for the remaining 8 weeks of the postpartum intervention period . Contingent vouchers increased 7-day point-prevalence abstinence at the end-of-pregnancy ( 37 % vs. 9 % ) and 12-week postpartum ( 33 % vs. 0 % ) assessment s. That effect was sustained through the 24-week postpartum assessment ( 27 % vs. 0 % ) , which was 12 weeks after discontinuation of the voucher program . Total mean voucher earnings across antepartum and postpartum were 397 US dollars ( SD=414 US dollars ) and 313 US dollars ( SD=142 dollars ) in the contingent and noncontingent conditions , respectively . The magnitude of these treatment effects exceed levels typically observed with pregnant and recently postpartum smokers , and the maintenance of effects through 24 weeks postpartum extends the duration beyond those reported previously
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 .