An exploration of attitudes toward the use of patient incentives to support diabetes self-management.

OBJECTIVE

To improve our understanding of the potential of incentives to enhance diabetes self-management (type 1 and type 2) and to integrate incentives into a conceptual model of diabetes self-management over time.

DESIGN

A qualitative analysis of in-depth individual interviews with 12 patients and 9 providers.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Influence of time on patients' needs for diabetes self-management technologies and on the use of incentives to drive behavioural changes.

RESULTS

Ten of the 12 participants with diabetes (83%) were interested in using financial incentives to improve their diabetes self-management. We found that incentives can play two key roles in diabetes self-management: guide the learning phase during the creation of habits; and serve as an acknowledgement of efforts made in the stable phase, when providers typically only focus on the patients' failures at self-management.

CONCLUSION

Patients seem receptive to the idea of financial incentives, which have the potential to support diabetes self-management through either small monetary amounts or tangible rewards. Incentives hold promise for supporting behaviour changes, especially in early stages of diabetes, but they require careful planning to avoid the undesired consequence of decreased intrinsic motivation.