The Claim

Among primary care physicians managing patients at high cardiovascular risk, those who supported offering financial incentives to physicians or patients achieved greater reductions in patient LDL cholesterol when their patients were enrolled in shared physician-patient incentive programs, with average LDL reductions of −33.9 mg/dL among physicians who supported physician incentives and −37.4 mg/dL among those who supported patient incentives, compared to −24.6 mg/dL and −27.1 mg/dL respectively in control groups.

Source: Physician attitudes toward participating in a financial incentive program for LDL reduction are associated with patient outcomes.

What the research says

Supports is higher

Support is ahead, but a single strong opposing study can change this.

Supports
68score
Challenges
0score

These are independent scores, not a percentage. Higher-grade studies count more, so a single strong opposing study can outweigh several weaker ones.

Quantitative
1 study reviewed
In plain English

Doctors who liked the idea of giving money rewards to themselves or their patients for staying healthy saw bigger drops in their patients' bad cholesterol, especially when both doctor and patient got rewards.

See the scientific wording

Among primary care physicians managing patients at high cardiovascular risk, those who agreed with offering financial incentives to physicians or patients achieved greater reductions in patient LDL cholesterol when their patients were enrolled in shared physician-patient incentive programs, with average LDL reductions of −33.9 mg/dL among physicians who supported physician incentives and −37.4 mg/dL among those who supported patient incentives, compared to −24.6 mg/dL and −27.1 mg/dL respectively in control groups.

What the research says

1 study
  1. Study: Physician attitudes toward participating in a financial incentive program for LDL reduction are associated with patient outcomes.

    Doctors who liked the idea of getting paid for helping patients lower cholesterol actually helped their patients do better when those payment programs were used.

Score breakdown, mechanism chain, raw evidence, ideal studies needed & 1 supporting studies

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