How a lottery system helped 10 patients stay on their medication 24% more often
Abstract
Millions of patients are at risk of stroke and bleeding complications due to poor adherence to warfarin, a blood clot medication. They may take the wrong dosage, fail to take it all, or accidentally take a different medication.
Volpp et al. ran two pilot studies to investigate how financial incentives affect adherence. The researchers looked at whether a lottery system—in which patients were enrolled in a lottery if they adhered to their prescribed warfarin regime—could i) lead patients to take the right dosage of warfarin, and ii) lead patients to take warfarin, as opposed to another medication.
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Sources
- Volpp, K. G., Loewenstein, G., Troxel, A. B., Doshi, J., Price, M., Laskin, M., & Kimmel, S. E. (2008). A test of financial incentives to improve warfarin adherence. BMC Health Services Research, 8(1), 272. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-8-272.
- Walkey, A. J., Law, A., & Bosch, N. A. (2021). Lottery-Based Incentive in Ohio and COVID-19 Vaccination Rates. JAMA, 326(8), 766. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2021.11048
- Barrow, L., & Rouse, C. E. (2018). Financial Incentives and Educational Investment: The Impact of Performance-based Scholarships on Student Time Use. Education Finance and Policy, 13(4), 419–448. https://doi.org/10.1162/edfp_a_00228
