Swell to be Well: Motivating Healthy Behaviors and Preventing Sickness
An introduction to the prevention & wellness community on ChangeNow4Health
I would like to welcome everyone to the "Preventing Sickness and Maintaining Health" community. My name is Dmitriy Kruglyak and I am the founder of Trusted.MD Network, a community of health & medical bloggers.
Why am I excited about the role of prevention and wellness in healthcare reform?
To put it in plain terms, who likes to be sick? I have yet to meet anyone who would answer this question affirmatively. Much of the healthcare reform debate centers on "care" instead of "health". Without a doubt if you get sick you want access to the best care. But how much better would be to avoid getting sick altogether and lead a healthy and fulfilling life?
The field of prevention and wellness spans multiple disciplines. Better eating. Fitness and exercise. Regular check-ups. But at the root is helping people wake up and take charge of their lifestyle choices to reduce the health risks. Compare this to car shopping and the role of safety ratings. If you pick a car with good safety features and track record your insurance is going to be considerably cheaper. But beyond the immediate cost differential you are less likely to get into an accident to suffer further losses of health and wealth.
What would I define as the biggest challenge in wellness and prevention?
While very rewarding, motivating healthy behavior is not easy and can use every bit of help. The key is finding the right incentives for people to start paying attention to their health before a disaster strikes. Sounds good, but what is the problem with this statement?
Think of the meaning behind the word "incentive". It describes something that would induce people to take action. Sounds great to health wonks and corporate benefit managers, but how about real people? Incentives for healthy behavior need to move beyond "wonkspeak" and appeal to the interests of regular people - in a way they are willing to accept and embrace into their lives. There is a difference between carrots and sticks. The question I would like to ask is how to drive healthy behaviors without the feeling of being pushed and forced.
If you wonder where I am going with this, think entertainment. People go to movies, listen to music and watch TV because this is fun. People take cues of their tastes from their peers and want to "keep up with the Joneses". So the question is, how do you make healthy behavior the social norm, the fashion, the thing to do and specifically for Gen X/Y "hip and cool"?
How to make wellness and healthy living fun? How to incent and motivate healthful behaviors? Let's find the answers together.
Incentives
You could have a health score much like a credit score, or a grade. If your score was below the norm or average you would receive an incentive to improve your score. After time has passed the incentive could be given only if you improved your score.
Looking at the incentive directly the incentive will have to variable and can be changed during the program. One person might be motivated by cash rewards others might like travel. It would be very similar to what you see in the affinity credit card business.
Much of what we are talking about already exists in business today. Incentive programs are not new and should not be looked as a new idea in healthcare. In my opinion people will not change their behaviors unless you use incentives (the carrot and the stick).