490 dollars (or 451 euros). This is the amount that was promised by researchers to men suffering from obesity if they managed to lose weight.
- Obesity is a chronic disease that affects more and more French people.
- Many health problems are triggered by obesity.
- According to a new study, people suffering from obesity find it easier to lose weight when they are promised a large sum of money.
Can the prospect of earning a good sum of money help people suffering from obesity to shed their extra pounds? It seems so, according to a new study published in the JAMA.
“This research is based on a behavioral economic theory according to which people are more motivated by the prospect of losing money than by the prospect of making it,” explains study director Pat Hoddinott. “However, not everyone can afford to lose their own money, which is why we designed the Game of Stones trial which uses an endowment incentive. Basically, the money is placed in a bank account while throughout the experiment, which allows low-income men to participate”, he continues.
His research involved a sample of 585 men from Belfast, Bristol and Glasgow whose body mass index (BMI) was greater than 30. Participants were divided into three groups:
– The members of the first began a dietary rebalancing without any external help.
– The members of the second carried out the same procedure knowing that the sum of 490 dollars would be paid to them if they lost weight.
– The members of the third group also engaged in a similar process while benefiting from the financial incentive and text messages of encouragement sent regularly.
Obesity: money and encouraging text messages help you lose weight
The results showed that the combination of financial incentive and encouraging messages proved to be the most effective.
“In this randomized trial, sending encouraging text messages combined with a financial incentive led to a 5% weight loss after 12 months, compared to a 3% weight loss for sending messages alone and 1% for the control group”, write the authors in their final report.
The scientists, however, list several limitations to their work, including the fact that they used BMI as a measure of obesity, a scale that is now very controversial. It also remains to be seen how to translate financial incentives into real life, which could be very expensive for health systems.
Obesity: what are the associated health problems?
Today, 17% of French people are obese, including 6% of young people aged 8 to 17. Severe obesity has even practically doubled in a decade, going from 1.1% of our population in 2009 to 2% in 2020.
“The risks that overweight and obesity present for health are increasingly documented and better and better known,” explain WHO on its website.
“It is estimated that in 2019, a BMI above the optimal value was the cause of 5 million deaths due to non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular problems, diabetes, cancers, neurological disorders, respiratory pathologies chronic and digestive problems”, terminates the institution.
