Our primary conclusion is that there is a lack of compelling evidence that incentives of any form represent a compelling NCD reduction strategy .
The rising epidemic of non-communicable diseases ( NCDs ) poses substantial health and economic challenges to both individuals and society .
Application of incentive-based strategies based on traditional and behavioural economic theory has emerged as a potential strategy to address rising rates of NCDs .
Yet , whether or not incentives truly represent a promising strategy for addressing NCDs has not been systematic ally addressed nor is it clear whether certain behavioural economic strategies outperform others or simply offering a cash-based incentive for meeting a goal .
In this systematic review we aim to determine whether there is an evidence base for any of these strategies .
Burn and earn: a randomized controlled trial incentivizing exercise during fall semester for college first-year students.
OBJECTIVE To examine the viability of monetary incentives to increase fitness-center use and maintain/improve the Body Mass Indexes ( BMI s ) of first-year students over the fall semester . METHOD R and omized-controlled trial with no-treatment and incentive conditions involving 117 first-year students . For 12 weeks , students in the incentive condition received monetary payments ranging from $ 10 to $ 38.75 for meeting research er-set fitness-center use goals that were identical across conditions . Fitness-center use was monitored through electronic ID-card check-in and check-out records at the campus fitness center . RESULTS 63 % of incentive-condition participants met the weekly fitness-center use goals on average compared to only 13 % of control-condition participants , a significant difference , p<0.001 . Goal achievement significantly decreased over time , p<0.01 and at roughly the same rate in the control and incentive conditions , p=0.23 . Average BMI increases over the fall semester in the control ( 24.2 ( 0.6 ) to 24.6 (0.6)kg/m(2 ) ) versus incentive condition ( 23.1 ( 0.4 ) to 23.5 (0.4)kg/m(2 ) ) were not significantly different ( p=0.70 ) . CONCLUSION Weekly monetary incentives result ed in significantly more first-year students meeting weekly fitness-center use goals . However , the increased fitness-center use by the incentive condition did not prevent an increase in BMI during fall semester
Our primary conclusion is that there is a lack of compelling evidence that incentives of any form represent a compelling NCD reduction strategy .
The rising epidemic of non-communicable diseases ( NCDs ) poses substantial health and economic challenges to both individuals and society .
Application of incentive-based strategies based on traditional and behavioural economic theory has emerged as a potential strategy to address rising rates of NCDs .
Yet , whether or not incentives truly represent a promising strategy for addressing NCDs has not been systematic ally addressed nor is it clear whether certain behavioural economic strategies outperform others or simply offering a cash-based incentive for meeting a goal .
In this systematic review we aim to determine whether there is an evidence base for any of these strategies .