Financial incentives for exercise and medical care costs

Kazuki Kamimura (), Shohei Okamoto, Kenichi Shiraishi, Kazuto Sumita, Kohei Komamura, Akiko Tsukao and Shinya Kuno
Additional contact information
Kazuki Kamimura: Konan University
Shohei Okamoto: Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology
Kenichi Shiraishi: Gunma University of Health and Welfare
Kohei Komamura: Keio University
Akiko Tsukao: Tsukuba Wellness Research Inc
Shinya Kuno: The University of Tsukuba

International Journal of Economic Policy Studies, 2023, vol. 17, issue 1, No 4, 95-116

Abstract: Abstract Physical inactivity has become a public health priority in many developed countries to address large disease burdens from noncommunicable diseases and the associated financial costs. Policymakers are interested in incentive programs that use behavioral science insights to address the lack of exercise in citizens. However, as considerable resources are required for incentive payments and administration, determining the cost-effectiveness or return on investment of disseminating such programs is critical. This study evaluates the economic effects and costs of an incentive-based exercise program using data derived from the project conducted in six Japanese municipalities between 2014 and 2015, analyzing medical care costs as the project’s outcomes. By using a doubly robust difference-in-difference estimator, we found that the average treatment effects of the reduction in medical care costs due to the project were particularly evident for women, yielding a decline of 58,000 JPY. In total, the project was expected to save short-term medical care costs by 465 million JPY. Similarly, age-specific analysis showed medical care cost reductions of 56,200 JPY for those in their 60 s and 58,400 JPY for those in their 70 s, and these figures resulted in saving short-term medical care costs by 450 million JPY in total. With operational budgeted costs of 180 million JPY, including the fee for incentive payments, the short-term economic benefits of the project were significant and positive.

Keywords: Incentivized programs; Quasi-experimental approach; Physical activity; Doubly robust difference-in-difference estimator (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s42495-022-00093-6 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:ijoeps:v:17:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1007_s42495-022-00093-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer ... policy/journal/42495

DOI: 10.1007/s42495-022-00093-6

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Economic Policy Studies is currently edited by Akira Maeda

More articles in International Journal of Economic Policy Studies from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().