Dataset Information

Effectiveness of a low-value financial-incentive program for increasing vegetable-rich restaurant meal selection and reducing socioeconomic inequality: a cluster crossover trial.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In light of recent theories in behavioural economics, an intervention program with monetary incentives could be effective for helping patrons order healthy food, even if the incentive is small and less than one's perceived marginal value.

Methods

In this single-arm cluster crossover trial at 26 local restaurants, a 1-week campaign offered a 50-yen (approximately 0.5 US dollars) cash-back payment to customers ordering vegetable-rich meals, while no pre-order incentives were offered during the control period.

Results

In total, 511 respondents out of 7537 customers (6.8%), and 704 respondents out of 7826 customers (9.0%), ordered vegetable-rich meals during the control and intervention periods, respectively. During the intervention period, the covariate-adjusted proportion of vegetable-rich meal orders was 1.50 times higher (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.29 to 1.75), which increased daily sales by 1.77 times (95% CI: 1.11 to 2.83), even when subtracting the cost of cash-back payments. Respondents who reported spending the least amount of money on eating out (used as a proxy measure for income) were the least likely to order vegetable-rich meals during the control period. However, these individuals increased their proportion of purchasing such meals during the intervention period (a 3.8 percentage point increase (95% CI: 2.82 to 4.76) among those spending the least vs a 2.1 percentage point increase (95% CI: 1.66 to 2.62) among those spending the most; P for interaction?=?0.001). Similarly, irregular employees exhibited a larger increase (+?5.2 percentage points, 95% CI: 4.54 to 5.76) than did regular workers (-?1.4, 95% CI: -?1.66 to -?1.05, P for interaction?=?0.001).

Conclusions

A program with an immediate low-value monetary incentive could be a public health measure for reducing inequalities in making healthy food choices.

Trial registration

UMIN Clinical Trials Registry, UMIN000022396 . Registered 21 May 2016.

SUBMITTER: Nagatomo W

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6740003 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Effectiveness of a low-value financial-incentive program for increasing vegetable-rich restaurant meal selection and reducing socioeconomic inequality: a cluster crossover trial.

Nagatomo Wataru W Saito Junko J Kondo Naoki N

The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity 20190912 1

<h4>Background</h4>In light of recent theories in behavioural economics, an intervention program with monetary incentives could be effective for helping patrons order healthy food, even if the incentive is small and less than one's perceived marginal value.<h4>Methods</h4>In this single-arm cluster crossover trial at 26 local restaurants, a 1-week campaign offered a 50-yen (approximately 0.5 US dollars) cash-back payment to customers ordering vegetable-rich meals, while no pre-order incentives w ...[more]

PMID: 31511013

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Project description:BackgroundFinancial incentives promote many health behaviors, but effective ways to deliver health incentives remain uncertain.MethodsWe randomly assigned CVS Caremark employees and their relatives and friends to one of four incentive programs or to usual care for smoking cessation. Two of the incentive programs targeted individuals, and two targeted groups of six participants. One of the individual-oriented programs and one of the group-oriented programs entailed rewards of approximately $800 for smoking cessation; the others entailed refundable deposits of $150 plus $650 in reward payments for successful participants. Usual care included informational resources and free smoking-cessation aids.ResultsOverall, 2538 participants were enrolled. Of those assigned to reward-based programs, 90.0% accepted the assignment, as compared with 13.7% of those assigned to deposit-based programs (P<0.001). In intention-to-treat analyses, rates of sustained abstinence from smoking through 6 months were higher with each of the four incentive programs (range, 9.4 to 16.0%) than with usual care (6.0%) (P<0.05 for all comparisons); the superiority of reward-based programs was sustained through 12 months. Group-oriented and individual-oriented programs were associated with similar 6-month abstinence rates (13.7% and 12.1%, respectively; P=0.29). Reward-based programs were associated with higher abstinence rates than deposit-based programs (15.7% vs. 10.2%, P<0.001). However, in instrumental-variable analyses that accounted for differential acceptance, the rate of abstinence at 6 months was 13.2 percentage points (95% confidence interval, 3.1 to 22.8) higher in the deposit-based programs than in the reward-based programs among the estimated 13.7% of the participants who would accept participation in either type of program.ConclusionsReward-based programs were much more commonly accepted than deposit-based programs, leading to higher rates of sustained abstinence from smoking. Group-oriented incentive programs were no more effective than individual-oriented programs. (Funded by the National Institutes of Health and CVS Caremark; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01526265.).

Dataset Information

Effectiveness of a low-value financial-incentive program for increasing vegetable-rich restaurant meal selection and reducing socioeconomic inequality: a cluster crossover trial.

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Trial registration

Publications

Effectiveness of a low-value financial-incentive program for increasing vegetable-rich restaurant meal selection and reducing socioeconomic inequality: a cluster crossover trial.

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