Health-Medical-Fitness-Diet-zw: Financial

joi, 8 decembrie 2011

Targeted Financial Incentives For Patients Can Lead To Health Behavior Change

Main Category: Preventive Medicine
Also Included In: Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness; Smoking / Quit Smoking; Public Health
Article Date: 23 Nov 2011 - 0:00 PST

email to a friend printer friendly opinions
not yet rated 2 stars
Financial incentives work for doctors. Could they work for patients, too? Could they encourage them to change unhealthy behaviors and use preventive health services more? In some cases, yes, according to Dr. Marita Lynagh from the University of Newcastle in Australia, and colleagues. Their work, looking at why financial incentives for patients could be a good thing to change risky health behaviors, indicates that incentives are likely to be particularly effective at altering 'simple' behaviors e.g. take-up of immunizations, primarily among socially disadvantaged groups. Their article is published online in Springer's International Journal of Behavioral Medicine.

Following the proliferation of pay-for-performance programs for health care providers, the application of the same principles for individual behavior change is becoming an attractive option. But is it fair and does it work? To answer these questions, Lynagh and colleagues reviewed recent research looking at the effectiveness of personal financial incentives aiming to change health behavior, principally in the fields of smoking cessation and weight loss.

They found that the effectiveness of incentives depends on the types of behaviors targeted. Incentives appear to be most effective at altering behaviors which are simple, discrete and time-limited such as take up of immunization and attendance at health and education services, and less effective for complex and entrenched behaviors such as smoking, diet and exercise. However, in the case of these more complex behaviors, supporting the financial incentive with social support and skill training significantly increases the likelihood of success.

Financial incentives are also more likely to work with socially disadvantaged groups, particularly when the incentives address real barriers to change such as transport, medication and child-care costs. However, there is currently little evidence for long-term behavior change with one-time incentives. Regular reinforcement with a measured schedule of incentives (i.e. escalating size of incentive with frequent monitoring and rewards) is more effective at both initiating and maintaining behavior change. This especially applies in the case of more complex behaviors like drug treatment and smoking cessation, where long-term change is the real challenge.

The authors conclude: "We need effective public health interventions that clinicians can adopt easily to encourage people to change their health behaviors, to produce improved health outcomes for populations and a reduced burden on health care systems. Financial incentives are not the panacea to all health risk behaviors, but do hold promise for encouraging certain population groups to modify particular health behaviors."

Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Click 'references' tab above for source.
Visit our preventive medicine section for the latest news on this subject. Lynagh MC (2011). What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Guiding principles for the use of financial incentives in health behaviour change. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine. DOI 10.1007/s12529-011-9202-5
Springer Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report:

MLA

Springer. "Targeted Financial Incentives For Patients Can Lead To Health Behavior Change." Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 23 Nov. 2011. Web.
8 Dec. 2011. APA

Please note: If no author information is provided, the source is cited instead.

Please note that we publish your name, but we do not publish your email address. It is only used to let you know when your message is published. We do not use it for any other purpose. Please see our privacy policy for more information.

If you write about specific medications or operations, please do not name health care professionals by name.

All opinions are moderated before being included (to stop spam)

Contact Our News Editors

For any corrections of factual information, or to contact the editors please use our feedback form.

Please send any medical news or health news press releases to:

Note: Any medical information published on this website is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional. For more information, please read our terms and conditions.

View the original article here

Some Older Adults May Turn To Alcohol, Smoking When Under Financial Strain

Main Category: Alcohol / Addiction / Illegal Drugs
Also Included In: Smoking / Quit Smoking; Anxiety / Stress; Seniors / Aging
Article Date: 11 Nov 2011 - 0:00 PST

email to a friend printer friendly opinions
2 stars not yet rated
During financial hard times, some older adults may turn to alcohol or cigarettes as a way to cope, according to a study in the November issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

The study, of more than 2,300 older Americans, found that some -- particularly men and people with less education -- were at risk of boosting their drinking if their finances took a hit.

The same correlation was seen when it came to smoking, especially among relatively younger study participants (those who were age 65 at the study's start).

The findings do not prove that financial strain, per se, was the reason for the changed drinking and smoking habits. But it is known that some people use alcohol and cigarettes as a way of coping with stress, says lead researcher Benjamin A. Shaw, Ph.D., of the State University of New York at Albany.

"When you have a stressor that's not very controllable, people may focus on something to help control their emotional response to the stressor," Shaw says.

And financial woes may be particularly stressful for older adults, he notes.

"They are out of the workforce, and they might feel like they have less time to recover or generally have less control over their financial situation," Shaw says.

The older adults in the study were surveyed periodically between 1992 and 2006, when the world was in stronger financial shape than it is now. The ongoing financial crisis, coupled with the aging population, means that the number of older adults facing money problems will probably only grow, Shaw's team says.

Overall, 16% of study participants reported increasing financial strain over the study period. Three percent reported increases in heavy drinking (more than 30 drinks a month), and 1% said they'd started smoking more.

Those odds were higher among older men who were under growing financial strain: they were 30% more likely to take up heavy drinking than men who'd remained financially stable.

The findings were similar when the researchers compared older adults with low education levels (less than high school) with their more-educated counterparts.

In contrast, older women tended to cut down on drinking when they hit financial hard times -- as did those with higher education levels.

The reasons for those differences are not clear. But Shaw speculates that older men may tend to have a harder time facing financial woes -- because they are used to being the "breadwinner," for example, or because they tend to have less social support than women do.

It's also possible that for older generations, drinking and smoking are considered less appropriate responses to stress for women.

The bottom line, according to Shaw, is that people should be aware that some older adults may respond to financial problems by turning to alcohol or smoking. Older people do often keep money difficulties to themselves, he notes; but if family members know that an older relative is in financial trouble, they can be on the lookout for possible problem drinking or increases in smoking.

In addition, Shaw says, human service agencies, and even local health departments, could play a role by setting up programs to help older adults find better ways to deal with the stress that originates from experiencing financial difficulties.

Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Click 'references' tab above for source.
Visit our alcohol / addiction / illegal drugs section for the latest news on this subject. Shaw, B. A., Agahi, N. & Krause, N. (November 2011). Are changes in financial strain associated with changes in alcohol use and smoking among older adults? Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 72(6), 917-925.
Available at: http://www.jsad.com/jsad/link/72/917
Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report: