Small Cash Rewards for Big Losers – Experimental Insights Into the Fight Against the Obesity Epidemic
نویسندگان
چکیده
We complement the empirical evidence on the sustainability of weight loss achieved through cash rewards and, for the fi rst time, rigorously examine the potential of cash rewards to prevent weight cycling. In a three period randomized controlled trial, about 700 obese persons were fi rst assigned to two treatment groups, which were promised cash contingent on the achievement of an individually assigned target weight, and to a control group. Successful participants were subsequently allocated to two treatment groups off ered cash rewards for confi rming the previously achieved target weight and to a control group. This is the fi rst experiment of this kind that fi nds eff ects of weight loss rewards up to 18 months after they were removed. Additional rewards only signifi cantly improve the sustainability of weight loss while they are in place. JEL Classifi cation: I12, I18, D03, C93
منابع مشابه
Denial of Treatment to Obese Patients—the Wrong Policy on Personal Responsibility for Health
In many countries around the world, including Iran, obesity is reaching epidemic proportions. Doctors have recently taken, or expressed support for, an extreme ‘personal responsibility for health’ policy against obesity: refusing services to obese patients. This policy may initially seem to improve patients’ incentives to fight obesity. But turning access to medical services into a benefit depe...
متن کامل"R-Rating" for Fast Food: A Novel Weapon in Our Fight against the Expanding Teen Obesity Epidemic.
متن کامل
Is type 2 diabetes an operable intestinal disease? A provocative yet reasonable hypothesis.
Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for 90-95% of all cases of diabetes, is a growing epidemic that places a severe burden on health care systems, especially in developing countries. Because of both the scale of the problem and the current epidemic growth of diabetes, it is a priority to find new approaches to better understand and treat this disease. Gastrointestinal surgery may provide new opport...
متن کاملMolecular Medicine Select
From Alzheimer’s disease and the obesity epidemic to the chronic health effects of certain viral infections, scientists in academia and big pharma are seeking new therapeutic targets and strategies to tackle these diseases. However, as discussed in this Molecular Medicine Select, designing more effective drugs with fewer side effects that fight the disease itself and not just the symptoms requi...
متن کاملNew Insights into the Effect of Diabetes and Obesity in Alzheimer’s Disease
Abstract Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in elderly people. The prevalence of Alzheimer diseases is increasing in the world due to population aging. Metabolic disease such as diabetes and obesity play important role in Alzheimer disease. Hyperglycemia can play important role in brain damage. It causes cognitive impairments, functional and structural alterations in...
متن کامل