The study, published this month in the journal Health Affairs, reported the results of a year-long randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of financial incentives to encourage weight loss among 197 obese employees of the University of Pennsylvania health system.
Participants were asked to lose 5 percent of their weight. Each was assigned to one of four study groups. The control group wasn’t offered any financial rewards. The three other groups were offered an incentive valued at $550. One group was told they would begin receiving health insurance premium discounts on a bi-weekly basis immediately after reaching their weight loss goal, while another was told they would receive bi-weekly premium adjustments the following year if they reached their goal. The final group was eligible for a daily lottery payment if they met their daily weight loss goal and weighed in the previous day.
At year’s end, no group had met the 5 percent weight-loss target. Participants’ average weight was virtually unchanged, whether or not they had a financial incentive to lose pounds. Nineteen percent of participants did meet the 5 percent target, but they weren’t concentrated in any particular group.
The study was structured to reflect typical employer workplace wellness plans. “Our study showed that the incentive is not what motivated people, at least in this design,” Patel said.
Eighty-one percent of employers with 200 or more workers that offer health insurance offered weight loss, smoking cessation or lifestyle coaching programs, according to the 2015 employer health benefits survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research and Educational Trust. About two-thirds of large companies offered workers cash or merchandise for participating in these programs, the survey found, with 34 percent offering lower premiums or cost sharing.
KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation.
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