Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of incentives as a tool for prevention of non-communicable diseases: A systematic review

Eric A. Finkelstein, Marcel Bilger and Drishti Baid

Social Science & Medicine, 2019, vol. 232, issue C, 340-350

Abstract: The rising epidemic of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) poses substantial health and economic challenges to both individuals and society. Application of incentive-based strategies based on traditional and behavioural economic theory has emerged as a potential strategy to address rising rates of NCDs. Yet, whether or not incentives truly represent a promising strategy for addressing NCDs has not been systematically addressed nor is it clear whether certain behavioural economic strategies outperform others or simply offering a cash-based incentive for meeting a goal. In this systematic review we aim to determine whether there is an evidence base for any of these strategies. Forty-eight published randomized controlled trials (70 contrasts) evaluating the effectiveness of incentive-based strategies for improvements in NCD risk-factors were reviewed. Our primary conclusion is that there is a lack of compelling evidence that incentives of any form represent a compelling NCD reduction strategy. More evidence for long-term effectiveness and cost-effectiveness is needed to justify third party funding of any incentive based strategy.

Keywords: Non-communicable disease; Smoking; Weight loss; Diet; Alcohol; Physical activity; RCT; Cost-effectiveness; Incentive (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953619302825
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:232:y:2019:i:c:p:340-350

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.05.018

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().