5 Examples of How Behavioral Economics Can Influence Patient Behavior
How can we help patients make decisions that are in their best interests? Behavioral economics is a field full of tools that can make the right choice the easy one to make for patients.
Gamification, incentives, text-based nudges, and mental models are a few of the techniques CHIBE researchers use.
See 5 examples below of how behavioral economics principles have been used to improve the lives of patients.
1. Gamification and incentives can increase physical activity.
In this study, incentives and gamification elements helped increase physical activity in patients who have encountered a serious heart problem in the past or who have a high risk of serious heart problems.
The gamification element was a game where participants could earn points and gain levels by meeting their step goals. The financial incentives were $14 a week, but participants could lose $2 each day that they did not meet their step goals.
Those who received incentives and played the game did the best at hitting step goals during the 12-month study. They also continued to walk more during the 6-month follow-up period.
The effects of these interventions to increase physical activity translate to a 10% estimated reduced risk of cardiovascular death.
(Find The Today Show coverage here.)
2. Incentives tied to “streaks” of consistent seatbelt use can help promote safer driving.
Recent research found that a modest financial incentive tied to maintaining “streaks” of seatbelt use led to sustained seatbelt wearing.
In this study of around 1,100 General Motors-connected drivers, researchers found that drivers were 26% less likely to drive unbuckled when they were promised a share of $125 weekly prize money for maintaining a streak of always buckling up. The weekly $125 prizes were divided among drivers who maintained their perfect streak.
In a follow-up period after the intervention ended, there was a 33% reduction in unbuckled trips, indicating that the habit persisted.
(Find Consumer Affairs article here.)
3. Incentives can motivate kids to adhere to their daily preventive inhaler.
In this study of nearly 100 school-aged children with high-risk asthma, those who received the following interventions had a 15 percentage point higher medication adherence compared with controls:
- daily text message reminders
- gain-framed financial incentives
- weekly performance feedback
One note: this boost in adherence lasted only during the intervention, meaning there was no evidence of lasting behavior change.
(Find MedPage coverage here.)
4. Reminder texts can nudge patients to get vaccinated.
“A flu shot is waiting for you.” A simple text to patients might be able to persuade them to get vaccinated. In a megastudy with 689,000 Walmart pharmacy customers, researchers found that text-based reminders increased vaccination rates by an average of 6.8% over a business-as-usual condition.
The team tested 22 different text reminders that leveraged various behavioral economics tools and found that the “waiting for you” language and two texts sent three days apart was the most successful approach.
(See CNN’s coverage here.)
5. A tool called “B-OK bottles” can help patients with HIV.
In this study, researchers looked at the effects of a visual and tactile tool called “B-OK bottles.” The bottles are designed to change and strengthen mental models about HIV disease progression and transmission.
The bottles help explain the benefits of antiretroviral therapy as well as the concepts of treatment as prevention and “Undetectable=Untransmittable.”
The researchers discovered that exposure to the B-OK bottles was associated with:
- improved awareness and understanding of HIV terminology
- changes in attitudes about HIV treatment
- increased intention to rely on HIV treatment for transmission prevention
“Insights from qualitative interviews aligned with the quantitative findings as respondents expressed a better understanding of U=U and felt that B-OK clearly explained concepts of HIV treatment and prevention,” the study authors wrote.
(Watch an explainer video with visuals of the bottles here.)