Thought Leadership in Action

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) statistics show that more than 33% of adults in the U.S. over the age of 20 are overweight and another 36% are obese. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) have labeled this weighty problem as nothing less than an epidemic which raises the risk for a host of health problems including diabetes, heart disease, stroke, arthritis and some cancers.

In addition to the personal toll on health, the work-related economic burden of overweight and obese workers is also enormous. For example, a Gallup poll found that overweight and obese workers cost U.S. businesses about $153 billion annually because of lost productivity. Overall, workers who are overweight and obese account for an extra 450 million days of lost work each year, compared with people who maintain a normal weight.

Although countless books and diets promise quick weight loss and reports in the news warn about the health consequences of being overweight, the fact remains that more Americans are fatter than ever. However, a study from the Mayo Clinic suggests there is a way organizations can successfully encourage employees to stick to a weight loss plan. The key? Financial incentives.

Using Money to Promote Weight-Loss Goals

The research, presented at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session held in San Francisco, found that employees who received cash incentives to follow a weight loss program were far more likely to stick to their diets and lost significantly more weight than study participants who received no financial incentives.

The Mayo Clinic research team noted that previous research has also shown that financial incentives can help with weight loss. However, the new study is particularly significant because it examined more participants over a longer period of time than earlier studies. Lead author Steven Driver, M.D., an internal medicine resident at Mayo Clinic, explained that, in all, one hundred healthy adult Mayo Clinic employees or their dependents participated in the research for about a year. Earlier studies testing financial incentives and weight loss only followed people for 12 and 36 weeks.

The research subjects were between the ages of 18 and 63 and all had a body mass index (BMI) of 30 to 39.9 kg/m2. According to the CDC, an adult who has a BMI (a calculation determined by using weight and height) of 30 or higher is considered obese, so all the people in the study were significantly overweight.

The participants were assigned to one of four weight loss groups: two groups had financial incentives and two offered no money perks. All the people in the study were given the same goal – to drop four pounds per month up to a predetermined goal weight – and they were weighed monthly over the course of a year. Each month, the people in the financial incentive groups who met their goals received $20 while those who failed to reach their weight loss goals had to pay $20 into a bonus pool. The participants were informed that all the people in both incentive groups who completed the study would be eligible to win the pooled money by a lottery drawing.

So how effective was this seemingly simple, almost game-like approach to motivating employees using a cash incentive? The results showed the approach worked even better than expected.

The people in the two cash incentive groups were significantly more likely to remain in the weight loss program compared with the non-incentive groups (62% compared to 26%). Even the people in the incentive group who had to pay cash penalties when they didn’t reach their monthly weight loss goal were more likely to continue their participation in the study than those in the non-incentive groups.

What’s more, the financial incentive groups’ participants lost a little over nine pounds on average, compared to only 2.34 pounds for the participants in the groups that had no cash incentive.

"The take-home message is that sustained weight loss can be achieved by financial incentives. The financial incentives can improve results, and improve compliance and adherence,” Dr. Driver said in a media statement.

"Traditional therapies are not working for a lot of people, so people are looking for creative ways to help people lose weight and keep it off," senior study author Donald Hensrud, M.D., a preventive medicine expert at Mayo Clinic and medical editor of The Mayo Clinic Diet, added. "The results of this study show the potential of financial incentives."