Perspectives on the Form, Magnitude, Certainty, Target, and Frequency of Financial Incentives in a Weight Loss Program
Purpose Financial incentives are a promising approach to enhance weight loss outcomes; however, little guidance exists on the optimal incentive structure. Design Mixed methods. Setting An online weight management trial, combining outcome (i.e., weight loss) and behavioral (i.e., self-weighing, dieta...
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Published in | American journal of health promotion Vol. 36; no. 6; pp. 996 - 1004 |
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Main Authors | , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Los Angeles, CA
SAGE Publications
01.07.2022
American Journal of Health Promotion |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Purpose
Financial incentives are a promising approach to enhance weight loss outcomes; however, little guidance exists on the optimal incentive structure.
Design
Mixed methods.
Setting
An online weight management trial, combining outcome (i.e., weight loss) and behavioral (i.e., self-weighing, dietary self-monitoring, and steps) incentives over 12 months (up to $665).
Subjects
116 participants who completed the incentive preference assessment at the 18-month follow-up visit.
Method
Response distributions on the form, magnitude, certainty, and target of the incentives and content analysis of the qualitative responses.
Results
Nearly all (96.6%) participants indicated they liked receiving electronic Amazon gift cards, more so than the alternatives presented. Most participants (81.0%) thought they would have lost a similar amount of weight if the incentives were smaller. Few (18.1%) indicated they would have preferred a lottery structure, but 50.8% indicated the variable incentive schedule was beneficial during the maintenance period. Most (77.6%) felt incentives were most helpful when starting to lose weight. In both phases, most participants (85.3% and 72.4%, respectively) indicated appropriate behaviors were incentivized. Participants had mixed views on whether outcome or behavioral incentives were most motivating.
Conclusion
There was notable variation in preferences for the magnitude, duration, and timing of incentives; it will be important to examine in future research whether incentive design should be tailored to individual preferences. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 Rebecca Krukowski: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing-Original draft, Jean Harvey: Writing- Review & editing, Funding acquisition, Supervision. Shelly Naud: Formal analysis, Data curation, Writing- Review & editing. Eric Finkelstein: Writing- Review & editing. Delia West: Methodology, Writing- Review & editing, Funding acquisition, Supervision. Author Contributions |
ISSN: | 0890-1171 2168-6602 |
DOI: | 10.1177/08901171221078843 |