ArticleJournal of medical ethics2011
Acceptability of financial incentives to improve health outcomes in UK and US samples.
Article in Journal of medical ethics, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 44 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
44 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Can incentives improve antipsychotic adherence in major mental illness? A mixed-methods systematic review.BMJ open · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Personal financial incentives for changing habitual health-related behaviors: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Preventive medicine · 2015Pooled it
- The effectiveness of financial incentives for health behaviour change: systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2014Pooled it
- Financial reinforcers for improving medication adherence: findings from a meta-analysis.The American journal of medicine · 2012Pooled it
- Self-reported acceptability and feasibility of a multimodal intervention to reduce antibiotic prescriptions for urinary tract infections in primary care: a process evaluation of the RedAres trial among general practitioners and medical practice assistants.BMC health services research · 2025Trial
- Treatment Satisfaction in a Randomized Clinical Trial of mHealth Smoking Abstinence Reinforcement.Journal of substance abuse treatment · 2017Trial
- Trial
- Trial
- Financial incentives for increasing uptake of HPV vaccinations: a randomized controlled trial.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2015Trial
- Reinforcing adherence to antihypertensive medications.Journal of clinical hypertension (Greenwich, Conn.) · 2015Trial
- Trial
- Healthcare providers' views on the acceptability of financial incentives for breastfeeding: a qualitative study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2014Trial
- Effectiveness of financial incentives to improve adherence to maintenance treatment with antipsychotics: cluster randomised controlled trial.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2013Trial
- Promoting healthy behaviour with financial incentives: three challenges and solutions for large scale implementation.The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2026Review
- Article
- Beliefs related to health care incentives: Comparison of substance use disorder treatment providers, medical treatment providers, and a public sample.Journal of substance abuse treatment · 2021Article
- Adolescent and parent perspectives on the acceptability of financial incentives to promote self-care in adolescents with type 1 diabetes.Pediatric diabetes · 2020Article
- Implementation of Financial Incentives for Successful Smoking Cessation in Real-Life Company Settings: A Qualitative Needs Assessment among Employers.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
In an online study conducted separately in the UK and the US, participants rated the acceptability and fairness of four interventions: two types of financial incentives (rewards and penalties) and two types of medical interventions (pills and injections). These were stated to be equally effective in improving outcomes in five contexts: (a) weight loss and (b) smoking cessation programmes, and adherence in treatment programmes for (c) drug addiction, (d) serious mental illness and (e) physiotherapy after surgery. Financial incentives (weekly rewards and penalties) were judged less acceptable and to be less fair than medical interventions (weekly pill or injection) across all five contexts. Context moderated the relative preference between rewards and penalties: participants from both countries favoured rewards over penalties in weight loss and treatment for serious mental illness. Only among US participants was this relative preference moderated by perceived responsibility of the target group. Overall, participants supported funding more strongly for interventions when they judged members of the target group to be less responsible for their condition, and vice versa. These results reveal a striking similarity in negative attitudes towards the use of financial incentives, rewards as well as penalties, in improving outcomes across a range of contexts, in the UK and the USA. The basis for such negative attitudes awaits further study.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.