More companies offer rewards for healthy lifestyle changes

Dear Doctor K: My employer has started offering employees financial rewards for weight loss. I’m skeptical. Does this kind of financial incentive really work? might earn if they walked 7,000 steps each day. They then had $2 taken away every day they did not walk 7,000 steps. Both types of incentive worked better than no incentive at all. But the negative incentive — losing money you could have won — was a more powerful stimulus to regular walking.

There is some evidence that incentives work better when offered to groups of people, rather than on an individual basis. These programs usually involve financial incentives that are tied to the group’s success. When an individual fails to meet his or her personal goal, it reduces the bonus that all other members of the group will receive. If you fail to meet your personal goal, the others in the group suffer a financial hit — and they will know that you are the reason for it. It’s a powerful incentive not to miss your personal goal.

Even if it turns out that financial incentives do generally help people to adopt a healthy lifestyle, it remains to be seen how lasting this change in behavior will be. And it also remains unclear whether the savings to employers from reduced medical expenses due to healthier lifestyles will be greater than the money spent on the incentives themselves.

But as far as I’m concerned, it’s worth a look. Our lives are filled with incentives and disincentives designed to encourage actions that benefit both us and the people around us. From traffic lights to auto insurance premiums that drop if we avoid accidents or traffic tickets, our society tries to channel our behavior. I see nothing wrong with it — if it works.