Research News
April 28, 2009
HSR&D Investigator Kevin Volpp's Weight Loss Study Receives Additional Coverage
Kevin G. Volpp, MD, PhD, investigator at HSR&D's Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal online regarding his study about financial incentives and weight loss.
Dr. Volpp was lead author of the study, "Financial Incentive-Based Approaches for Weight Loss", a randomized trial that looked at two groups of dieters to determine whether insights from behavioral economic theory might be effectively applied to weight loss. The team's findings showed that the prospect of losing or gaining money was a significant incentive for dieters, especially when the money was not rewarded until the end of the period.
Both groups of participants played a lottery and received earnings if they achieved or lost more than the target weight. Further, participants invested their own money, which they lost if they failed to achieve weight goals. The incentives were tested against a control group in a randomized controlled trial among obese and overweight study participants at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in December 2008.
Dr. Volpp was also quoted in The New York Times online when the study first appeared in JAMA in December 2008.