What’s worse than losing your life? Losing a few bucks, apparently.
Threatening coronary-heart-disease patients with money loss could help motivate them to exercise more, according to new research published in Journal of the American Heart Association.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the US, and experts agree that regular exercise is one of the best ways to combat that risk.
But even knowing that, some patients have a hard time hitting the gym. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 21 percent of adults are doing enough aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities.
In an attempt to get at-risk patients moving, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania rounded up 105 people with ischemic heart disease, a condition where coronary arteries restrict blood supply to the heart.
All participants received wrist-worn fitness tracking devices, such as Fitbits or Apple Watches. A smaller group was also assigned a daily step- count goal, plus monetary motivation: an account with $14 deposited every week — and $2 subtracted for every day they fell short of their goals.
Patients in that “incentive” group “significantly increased physical activity levels during the six-month [study] period,” logging 1,368 more steps per day than the fitness-trackers-only group, lead study author and cardiologist Dr. Neel Chokshi says in a press release.
Plus, the payoff lasted longer than the payday. Money-motivated participants continued to outstep their fellow study participants, even after the study authors stopped funding (and subtracting from) the accounts.
Creating financial motivation for healthy behavior isn’t a brand-new concept. Insurance companies, for example, already use financial rewards programs to encourage folks to move more.
But these findings suggest that losing cash is a more powerful motivator than the prospect of earning some. Something to think about the next time you’re paying your doctors’ office bills.