Word: volpp
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After her flameout on stickK, Sisson is working hard to make good on her goal on HealthyWage. With a steady weight loss of 4 lb. in four weeks, she may win the prize money in 2010. But the even greater challenge, Volpp says, will be keeping the weight off. Little is known about the link between financial incentives and long-term weight loss. Maybe by 2011 a website will start offering cash bonuses to users who maintain a healthy weight...
...Employers and individuals are desperate for a new approach," says Dr. Kevin Volpp, lead author of the study and director of the Center for Health Incentives at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Wharton School. "We will undoubtedly see more of these programs and initiatives in the future." (See 10 myths about dieting...
Still, the cash-for-fat idea proved powerful, and Volpp envisions ways it could be improved so that the weight loss sticks. If you run the programs for 12 to 18 months, for example, subjects start to reap the physical rewards of trimming down. "Their knees and back no longer ache. They start to look better in clothes," he says. "Those benefits become their own reinforcements, so you can turn off the incentive program." Employers and insurers could adopt a similar program, with monthly premiums falling along with the numbers on the scale. "We all tend to discount amorphous health...
Dieting is not the only discipline that can be encouraged with the promise of cash. Volpp, who is affiliated with the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Association and Penn's Center for Health Incentives, is exploring similar pay-to-play strategies for such challenges as quitting smoking and adhering to medication regimens...
...lucky enough to be part of one of Volpp's studies or have an enlightened insurer or employer? Not a concern. Spouses, parents and friends can set up lotteries or deposit contracts for one another too. Or you can make it even simpler: give a trusted person $100 or so, with instructions that if you cheat on your diet or no-smoking pledge, the money be donated - in your name - to a political candidate or group you find objectionable (Greenpeace if you work for an oil company, for example, or an SUV club if you work for Greenpeace). Whatever...