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Social norms and financial incentives to promote employees' healthy food choices: A randomized controlled trial.

ABSTRACT: Population-level strategies to improve healthy food choices are needed for obesity prevention. We conducted a randomized controlled trial of 2672 employees at the Massachusetts General Hospital who were regular customers of the hospital cafeteria with all items labeled green (healthy), yellow (less healthy), or red (unhealthy) to determine if social norm (peer-comparison) feedback with or without financial incentives increased employees' healthy food choices.Participants were randomized in 2012 to three arms: 1) monthly letter with social norm feedback about healthy food purchases, comparing employee to "all" and to "healthiest" customers (feedback-only); 2) monthly letter with social norm feedback plus small financial incentive for increasing green purchases (feedback-incentive); or 3) no contact (control). The main outcome was change in proportion of green-labeled purchases at the end of 3-month intervention. Post-hoc analyses examined linear trends.At baseline, the proportion of green-labeled purchases (50%) did not differ between arms. At the end of the 3-month intervention, the percentage increase in green-labeled purchases was larger in the feedback-incentive arm compared to control (2.2% vs. 0.1%, P=0.03), but the two intervention arms were not different. The rate of increase in green-labeled purchases was higher in both feedback-only (P=0.04) and feedback-incentive arms (P=0.004) compared to control. At the end of a 3-month wash-out, there were no differences between control and intervention arms.Social norms plus small financial incentives increased employees' healthy food choices over the short-term. Future research will be needed to assess the impact of this relatively low-cost intervention on employees' food choices and weight over the long-term.Clinical Trials.gov: NCT01604499.

SUBMITTER: Thorndike AN

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4837037 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Social norms and financial incentives to promote employees' healthy food choices: A randomized controlled trial.

Thorndike Anne N AN Riis Jason J Levy Douglas E DE

Preventive medicine 20160129

<h4>Objective</h4>Population-level strategies to improve healthy food choices are needed for obesity prevention. We conducted a randomized controlled trial of 2672 employees at the Massachusetts General Hospital who were regular customers of the hospital cafeteria with all items labeled green (healthy), yellow (less healthy), or red (unhealthy) to determine if social norm (peer-comparison) feedback with or without financial incentives increased employees' healthy food choices.<h4>Methods</h4>Par ...[more]

PMID: 26827617

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Many employers offer worksite wellness programs, including financial incentives to achieve goals. Evidence supporting such programs is sparse. OBJECTIVE:To assess whether diabetes and cardiovascular risk factor control in employees improved with financial incentives for participation in disease management and for attaining goals. DESIGN:Retrospective cohort study using insurance claims linked with electronic medical record data from January 2008-December 2012. PARTICIPANTS:Employee patients with diabetes covered by the organization's self-funded insurance and propensity-matched non-employee patient comparison group with diabetes and commercial insurance. INTERVENTION:Financial incentives for employer-sponsored disease management program participation and achieving goals. MAIN MEASURES:Change in glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and weight. RESULTS:A total of 1092 employees with diabetes were matched to non-employee patients. With increasing incentives, employee program participation increased (7 % in 2009 to 50 % in 2012, p?<?0.001). Longitudinal mixed modeling demonstrated improved diabetes and cardiovascular risk factor control in employees vs. non-employees [HbA1c yearly change -0.05 employees vs. 0.00 non-employees, difference in change (DIC) p <0.001]. In their first participation year, employees had larger declines in HbA1c and weight vs. non-employees (0.33 vs. 0.14, DIC p?=?0.04) and (2.3 kg vs. 0.1 kg, DIC p?<?0.001), respectively. Analysis of employee cohorts corresponding with incentive offerings showed that fixed incentives (years 1 and 2) or incentives tied to goals (years 3 and 4) were not significantly associated with HbA1c reductions compared to non-employees. For each employee cohort offered incentives, SBP and LDL also did not significantly differ in employees compared with non-employees (DIC p?>?0.05). CONCLUSIONS:Financial incentives were associated with employee participation in disease management and improved cardiovascular risk factors over 5 years. Improvements occurred primarily in the first year of participation. The relative impact of specific incentives could not be discerned.

Project description:American Indians (AI) have high prevalence of diabetes in youth and may benefit from increasing physical activity as a strategy to improve metabolic health. We tested whether financial incentives would elicit greater frequency and/or duration of exercise in AI youth at high risk for developing diabetes. Overweight/obese AI boys and girls, 11-20 years old, were instructed to exercise on 3 days/week for 48 weeks at a tribal wellness center. The program was divided into three, 16-week-long phases to test different financial incentive strategies. Within each phase participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups that received different payments for exercise. Phase 1 was designed to test whether the size of the incentive would affect exercise frequency. In Phase 1, the number of exercise sessions did not differ between the group receiving a modest fixed-value payment per exercise session and the group receiving enhanced incentives to exercise more frequently (26 ± 3 versus 28 ± 2 sessions, respectively, p = 0.568). In Phase 2, the provision of an enhanced financial incentive to increase exercise duration resulted longer sessions, as the incentivized and standard payment groups exercised 38 ± 2 versus 29 ± 1 minutes per session (p = 0.002), respectively. In Phase 3, the effect of reducing the incentives on maintenance of exercise behaviors was inconclusive due to high participant withdrawal. Aerobic fitness increased 10% during Phase 1 but was unchanged thereafter. Insulin sensitivity and body composition were unchanged during the study. In conclusion, enhanced financial incentives increased the duration of exercise sessions, but had minimal effects on exercise participation. These results indicate that financial incentives hold promise in motivating previously sedentary, overweight/obese adolescents to exercise longer, but motivating them to sustain an exercise program remains the major challenge. TRIAL REGISTRATION:ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01848353.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Social networks influence obesity patterns, but interventions to leverage social incentives to promote weight loss have not been well evaluated. OBJECTIVE:To test the effectiveness of gamification interventions designed using insights from behavioral economics to enhance social incentives to promote weight loss. DESIGN:The Leveraging Our Social Experiences and Incentives Trial (LOSE IT) was a 36-week randomized, controlled trial with a 24-week intervention and 12-week follow-up. PARTICIPANTS:One hundred and ninety-six obese adults (body mass index ≥ 30) comprising 98 two-person teams. INTERVENTIONS:All participants received a wireless weight scale, used smartphones to track daily step counts, formed two-person teams with a family member or friend, and selected a weight loss goal. Teams were randomly assigned to control or one of two gamification interventions for 36 weeks that used points and levels to enhance collaborative social incentives. One of the gamification arms also had weight and step data shared regularly with each participant's primary care physician (PCP). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:The primary outcome was weight loss at 24 weeks. Secondary outcomes included weight loss at 36 weeks. KEY RESULTS:At 24 weeks, participants lost significant weight from baseline in the control arm (mean: - 3.9 lbs; 95% CI: - 6.1 to - 1.7; P < 0.001), the gamification arm (mean: - 6.6 lbs; 95% CI: - 9.4 to - 3.9; P < 0.001), and the gamification arm with PCP data sharing (mean: - 4.8 lbs; 95% CI: - 7.4 to - 2.3; P < 0.001). At 36 weeks, weight loss from baseline remained significant in the control arm (mean: - 3.5 lbs; 95% CI: - 6.1 to - 0.8; P = 0.01), the gamification arm (mean: - 6.3 lbs; 95% CI: - 9.2 to - 3.3; P < 0.001), and the gamification arm with PCP data sharing (mean: - 5.2 lbs; 95% CI: - 8.5 to - 2.0; P < 0.01). However, in the main adjusted model, there were no significant differences in weight loss between each of the intervention arms and control at either 12, 24, or 36 weeks. CONCLUSIONS:Using digital health devices to track behavior with a partner led to significant weight loss through 36 weeks, but the gamification interventions were not effective at promoting weight loss when compared to control. TRIAL REGISTRATION:clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: 02564445.

Project description:BackgroundThe HealthyFood (HF) program offers members up to 25% cash back monthly on healthy food purchases. In this randomized controlled trial, we tested the efficacy of financial incentives combined with text messages in increasing healthy food purchases among HF members.MethodsMembers receiving the lowest (10%) cash back level were randomized to one of six arms: Arm 1 (Usual Care): 10% cash back, no weekly text, standard monthly text; Arm 2: 10% cash back, generic weekly text, standard monthly text; Arm 3: 10% cash back, personalized weekly text, standard monthly text; Arm 4: 25% cash back, personalized weekly text, standard monthly text; Arm 5: 10 + 15%NET cash back, personalized weekly text, standard monthly text; and, Arm 6: 10 + 15%NET cash back, personalized weekly text, unbundled monthly text. In the 10 + 15%NET cash back, the cash back amount was the baseline 10% plus 15% of the net difference between healthy and unhealthy spending. The generic text included information on HF and healthy eating, while the personalized text had individualized feedback on purchases. The standard monthly text contained the cash back amount. The unbundled monthly text included the amount lost due to unhealthy purchases. The primary outcome was the average monthly percent healthy food spending. Secondary outcomes were the percent unhealthy food spending, and the percent healthy and unhealthy food items.ResultsOf the members contacted, 20 opted out, and 2841 met all inclusion criteria. There were no between-arm differences in the examined outcomes. The largest mean (standard deviation) difference in percent healthy spending was between Arm 1 (24.8% [11%]) and Arm 2 (26.8% [13%]), and the largest mean difference in percent unhealthy spending was also between Arm 1 (24.4% [20%]) and Arm 2 (21.7% [17%]), but no differences were statistically significant after correction for multiple comparisons.ConclusionsNone of the tested financial incentive structures or text strategies differentially affected food purchasing. Notably, more than doubling the cash back amount and introducing a financial disincentive for unhealthy purchases did not affect purchasing. These findings speak to the difficulty of changing shopping habits and to the need for innovative strategies to shift complex health behaviors.Trial registrationNCT02486588 Increasing Engagement with a Healthy Food Benefit. The trial was prospectively registered on July 1, 2015.

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Social norms and financial incentives to promote employees' healthy food choices: A randomized controlled trial.

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Social norms and financial incentives to promote employees' healthy food choices: A randomized controlled trial.

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