Monetary incentives have been used numerous times in weight-loss programmes or campaigns, such as in the case of the Health Promotion Board’s recent “1 Million Kg Challenge”, where participants can win prizes such as shopping vouchers, vacation packages and a car.
A study conducted by Duke-NUS Graduate Medical aims to find our if getting participants to pay a deposit will be a motivating factor in behavioural change.
Associate Professor Joanne Yoong from the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, who researches in health economics, says that although incentivising personal health benefits has created debate, a healthier population could eventually be less taxing on the healthcare system.
She added that if health policies were to adopt the incentives mechanism together with a deposit portion, this might act as a safeguard against poor outcomes and spur people to commit to their health goals.
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