Research
Adherence
Subgroup analyses suggest weak trends where financial incentives might be more effective if they exceed 1.2% of personal disposable income, reward behavior change rather than just weight, are based on group performance, and are delivered by non-psychologists.
If using financial incentives, consider making them substantial (>1.2% of income), tied to behaviors (attendance, diet logs) rather than just weight, delivered in groups, and by non-clinical staff. However, these are only weak trends and not guaranteed to work.
LimitedQualifiesLOW confidence
Further sub-analysis by mode of delivery and amount of incentives although also non-statistically significant were suggestive of very weak trends in favour of use of amounts greater than 1.2% personal disposable income, rewards for behaviour change rather than for weight, rewards based on group performance rather than for individual performance and rewards delivered by non-psychologists rather than delivered by psychologists.
Why this rating
Subgroup analyses of heterogeneous studies with methodological flaws (no blinding, no ITT).
Source
Systematic review of the use of financial incentives in treatments for obesity and overweight
Virginia Paul-Ebhohimhen et al. · Obesity Reviews · 2007
DOI 10.1111/j.1467-789x.2007.00409.x
Meta-analysis · 7 studiesCited 230×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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