Health
How Incentives Can Drive Positive Health Outcomes
The use of financial incentives to change health-related behaviors is becoming increasingly common. However, the results of incentive schemes in the past have been mixed.
One reason may be that the underlying psychology behind incentive programs still needs to be fully understood. For example, a lottery-based financial incentive scheme can encourage people to attend eye screening appointments but only increases vaccination rates if the incentive is immediate.
Motivate Patients
Incentives are often a key driver for improving patient behaviors and healthcare outcomes. Patients may be offered incentives to sign up for a wellness program or participate in a vaccination campaign. Employers may provide employees with cash rewards to encourage healthy eating and exercise. Many ‘know your HIV’ programs in developing countries offer incentives to ensure people pick up their results.
Payment per achievement, in the form of payments to physicians for performing certain procedures or achieving certain quality metrics, is one method healthcare systems use to motivate providers to deliver value-based care.
But how much do these incentives work? Studies have shown that incentives’ effectiveness depends on the reward behavior and subtle design details, such as how an incentive is delivered or framed. Using behavioral science to drive these programs could yield better results and cost savings. For example, one controlled study found that a targeted, micro-incentive approach generated eight dollars in cost savings for every dollar spent on the program.
Encourage Adherence
Incentives can be used to encourage people to stick with their health goals. This can be done through various approaches, including price signals such as sin taxes or subsidies and commitment devices such as public contracts where individuals agree to change their behavior for a set period in return for additional benefits.
Several studies have reported that incentives informed by behavioral economics can improve adherence. However, these incentives have rarely been tested among youth living with HIV despite the high need for enhanced compliance.
One study implementing an incentive-based model to increase adherence reported that the program improved viral load suppression outcomes. The study also included several complementary measures, such as regular client-centered adherence meetings, monthly adherence audits, and feedback reports. Incentive magnitudes vary widely across studies, with payments ranging from annual provider income. However, most studies need to report detailed information regarding the amount of incentives and how they are paid.
Encourage Routine Check-Ups
Incentives are one route to encouraging routine check-ups and other trends, such as value-driven purchasing, patient-centered care and clinical performance management. But it’s important to consider how incentives are framed and designed. Using price signals to encourage health behaviors can be successful; for example, increasing the cost of tobacco and alcohol has been shown to reduce consumption.
However, introducing rewards can also backfire. For example, freebies like doughnuts or movie tickets can discourage people from getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
Incentives can be offered to individuals, groups of providers or even entire health systems. They can be tied to individual, group, or network performance markers or even at the practice or integrated delivery system level. The size of these incentives varies widely, and their frequency can be monthly, quarterly or annually. Moreover, linking incentives to health outcomes or measures can be demotivating because improvements tend to plateau over time. Instead, focusing on measurable improvements in quality or cost may be more effective.
Encourage Self-Care
Incentives are often viewed as encouraging healthy behavior and reducing overall healthcare costs. However, supporters and critics disagree on whether incentives are appropriate and effective. Supporters generally believe that people should be encouraged where possible into behaviors that promote improved health outcomes and that appropriately targeted incentive schemes can provide a form of symmetric or libertarian paternalism that steers people toward better choices without necessarily limiting what those choices are.
For example, one study randomly assigned participants to receive0 cash incentive for visiting their primary care provider (PCP) after enrolling in a community-based primary care program. These low-income patients were newly eligible for free or low-cost health insurance because the state had not relaxed its stringent Medicaid eligibility requirements.
The researchers found that a small financial incentive increased the number of first-time visits relative to the non-incentivized group. They also found that incentives framed as gains were more effective than those framed as losses.
Table of Contents
Discover the benefits of hyaluronic acid for acne.
In most acne scars there is a loss of skin volume ( atrophy ), which gives the area where they form a depressed or “engraved” appearance.
This atrophy is the product of a lack of hyaluronic acid and collagen in the dermis, the intermediate part of the skin, responsible for giving the turgidity, volume, and elasticity of healthy skin.
Methods of treatment
There are different methods to treat atrophic scars, which we could classify into two different groups according to their speed of action:
· Immediate effect. They are called fillers, biocompatible substances that can be injected into the skin to give volume to areas that have lost it.
Among them, those of hyaluronic acid, polylactic acid, or calcium hydroxyapatite stand out among others. Its turgid effect is immediate, filling cavities, furrows, and atrophic areas of the skin with very natural results. The duration of these materials is limited, so periodically (every 6 – 18 months ) it is common to practice a new session.
· Delayed effect. It implies that they promote the synthesis of collagen and ground substance of the dermis. It is worth mentioning the fractional lasers (ablative or non-ablative) and the intermediate and deep peels.
The main advantage of these methods is that their effect is permanent once the optimal point of improvement has been reached, which is not immediate but after practicing several sessions of the procedure.
Hyaluronic acid is indicated in the treatment of atrophic, depressed, and ice-pick acne scars. There are different densities of hyaluronic acid, designed to treat different forms of atrophy or loss of volume.
For the treatment of moderate or ice pick acne scars, it is useful to use low and intermediate densities; and to recover a large volume in especially atrophic areas, it is possible to use higher densities to cover the maximum repertoire of defects.
The main advantages of using hyaluronic acid lie in its immediate action, its durability, its biocompatibility, and its minimal allergenic potential. This molecule can fill in atrophic scars, providing optimal volume immediately and in the short term, promoting collagen synthesis in the long run.
In this way, the irregularity on the surface of the skin is substantially reduced after the application of hyaluronic acid, improving the overall appearance of the skin in the treated area.
Another positive aspect of using hyaluronic acid is that it usually only requires a single application session. Likewise, fillers are one of the best tolerated aesthetic procedures since they have a minimal rate of adverse effects and the pain caused is minimal if a precise technique is followed. Slight erythema (redness) that lasts 2-4 hours after the procedure is common and can be reduced with the application of cold compresses.
According to studies published by Halachmi et al, the satisfaction rate and results in patients with atrophic acne scars and ice pick treated with hyaluronic acid are excellent.
The only limiting aspect of hyaluronic acid fillers is their duration. This molecule is naturally degraded in the skin, its effect persisting for 6-18 months depending on the density of hyaluronic acid used and the indication for which it has been applied.
Specifically, for acne scars, the duration of hyaluronic acid is the maximum possible, since it is retained within the fibrosis that partitions the scars. It should be remembered that, in the long term, this molecule favors the synthesis of collagen, so that the perceptible effect is progressively more durable as different sessions are carried out.
FREQUENT QUESTIONS
What is the main indication of hyaluronic acid in acne scars?
Its main effect is to fill in depressed scars and regularize the appearance of the skin surface.
When is the effect of hyaluronic acid noticeable?
The effect of hyaluronic acid is immediate and noticeable at the end of its application. Over a week or so, the hyaluronic acid settles in the applied area and the surface where it has been applied progressively becomes even more regular.
How is hyaluronic acid applied?
The procedure is performed in the Dermatology consultation through microinjections applied under the scars to be treated. An anesthetic cream is usually used before the session and it is very tolerable, with minimal discomfort.
How many hyaluronic acid sessions are needed to treat facial acne scars?
In general, if they are not very deep or extensive, one is enough.
How is the face after doing the filling session?
The corrective effect of hyaluronic acid is immediate. At the end of the session, most atrophic and depressed scars have recovered all or part of their lost volume. Immediately after the session, it is usual to see some redness in the treated areas and slight swelling, which usually lasts between 2-4 hours.
It is possible, although infrequent, that during the procedure a minimal punctual hematoma may appear in an injection area, which will disappear spontaneously over a week or so.
Is it a painful procedure?
Filling with hyaluronic acid after application of anesthetic cream is one of the most well-tolerated and appreciated aesthetic procedures, with an excellent satisfaction rate for the patient.
Can fillers be combined with other acne scar treatments?
Yes. They can be used concomitantly with ablative/non-ablative peels or lasers, or even botulinum toxin if desired. It is recommended, yes, to carry them out in different sessions.
Is the effect of hyaluronic acid definitive?
No. Although with each session there is a certain accumulation of the effect due to the collagen synthesis promoted by hyaluronic acid, it is advisable to perform a filler every 6-18 months depending on the indication and the area to be treated.
Table of Contents
-
Food10 months ago10 + Benefits of carrot juice and side effects
-
Food10 months ago8 shocking benefits of leek juice and side effects
-
Health10 months ago5 Shocking health benefits of kinkeliba and side effects
-
Health10 months agoBenefits of guava leaves Sensually
-
Health8 months ago50 Super Healthy (And Very Often Cheap) Foods
-
Health10 months ago13 shocking health benefits of Thai eggplant
-
Food8 months ago19 Benefits of tobacco plant and side effects
-
Health10 months ago10 shocking health benefits of Canary seed milk