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 .
An experimental evaluation of an incentive program to reduce serum cholesterol levels among health fair participants.
OBJECTIVE To evaluate the impact of a health fair and incentive program on the reduction of  serum cholesterol levels among participants . DESIGN Pretest-posttest control group design , with a 6-month delay between pretest and posttest screenings . SETTING Health fair program for employees of a large midwestern school district . PARTICIPANTS Volunteer sample among persons with serum cholesterol levels above 5.17 mmol/L ( 200 mg/dL ) . Participants were r and omly assigned to experimental ( N = 29 ) and comparison groups ( N = 34 ) . INTERVENTION The intervention consisted of four components : a health fair , health risk information , announcement of follow-up screening , and an incentive program . The incentive program consisted of five $ 100 cash prizes for reducing serum cholesterol levels by 20 % or below 5.17 mmol/L ( 200 mg/dL ) . The comparison group received only the first three components . MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Serum cholesterol levels were measured by a venipuncture , nonfasting , chemical analysis process . RESULTS The experimental group showed a 13.2 % reduction in serum cholesterol levels , and the comparison group exhibited an 11.3 % reduction ( P < .05 ) . CONCLUSIONS A health fair , consisting of information on the level of risk and how to reduce risk , and announcement of follow-up screening and incentives can reduce the risk for cardiovascular disease
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 .