Move more, quit smoking, lose weight: great resolutions, hard to keep. But does it get easier if there is a financial incentive in return? According to research by Radboud University and others, it can be an effective tool, although there are still some obstacles. They presented their findings this week in Economisch Statistische Berichten (ESB).
Some lifestyle interventions are more effective than others, but in general, financial incentives are a 'powerful tool to help reduce health inequalities in the Netherlands', says Koen van der Swaluw of Radboud University. Despite knowing more and more about the effectiveness of financial incentives to promote lifestyle, they are still relatively little used. Health insurer ASR scrapped a reward programme for healthy behaviour earlier this year.
Together with colleagues Stefan Lipman (Erasmus University) and David de Buisonjé (Delft University of Technology, Leiden University), Van der Swaluw mapped the barriers to introducing rewards for healthy behavior. 'Around financial incentives, there are often objections about the limited long-term effects: will someone continue the changed behaviour once the incentive ends? There are opportunities for follow-up research there,' says van der Swaluw. 'For instance, there have been successful programmes to discourage smoking during pregnancy, programmes that have long-term effects'.
Not opera, but football ASR changed its rewards programme because mainly active people used it. 'But if you ali.