Financial incentives may be feasible for encouraging self-management among adolescents with type 1 diabetes
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Financial incentive programs to support diabetes self-management in families with adolescents with type 1 diabetes may improve health outcomes, according to a qualitative study published in Pediatric Diabetes.
“Financial incentive programs are a potentially promising strategy for improving self-care practices and health outcomes in adolescents,” Faisal S. Malik, MD, MSHS, of the department of pediatrics at the University of Washington and the Center for Child Health Behavior and Development at Seattle Children’s Research Institute in Seattle, and colleagues wrote. “Adolescents face converging barriers to adherence, such as social pressure, inclination towards risk-taking, depression, anxiety and fatigue from chronic disease management. Therefore, adolescents are likely to benefit from programs that empower them to improve diabetes self-care engagement.”
Focus groups consisting of 46 adolescents (age 12-14 years, 39.1%; age 15-17 years, 60.9%; 54.4% girls; 69.6% non-Hispanic white) with type 1 diabetes and 39 caregivers (89.7% women) of adolescents with type 1 diabetes were included in this 2018 study. Of the caregivers, 17.9% had an annual household income below $49,999, 46.2% had an annual household income of $50,000 to $74,999, and 23.1% had an annual household income of $125,000 or more.
Researchers assessed themes from participants’ responses to questions about self-care tasks and challenges, incentives for self-care and attitudes toward financial incentives, among others.
“The vast majority” of participants reported that they were receptive to potential financial incentive programs to support diabetes self-care, according to the researchers. Three thematic categories for Participants’ judged the acceptability of financial incentives for promoting diabetes self-care based on how well financial incentives fit with their family’s value system, how effective they believed financial incentives would be, and how urgently they felt the need to improve self-care to avoid diabetes-related complications.
According to the researchers, families and adolescents are receptive to financial incentives that may improve diabetes self-management.
“Future research is needed to determine the ideal value and structure of financial incentives in order to design programs in which the upfront costs of providing financial incentives will be offset by the reduction of extreme and costly health events over an individual’s lifetime,” the researchers wrote. “Our qualitative results indicate that it is prudent to continue work to identify effective ways to deploy financial incentives as a strategy to support adolescents in achieving self-care goals for diabetes management.” – by Erin T. Welsh
Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.
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