The Study
Physician attitudes toward participating in a financial incentive program for LDL reduction are associated with patient outcomes.
This study shows that doctors who liked the idea of sharing money rewards with patients tended to have patients with better cholesterol results — but it doesn’t prove that the attitude caused the improvement. It’s like noticing that people who wear raincoats also carry umbrellas when it rains; one doesn’t cause the other, but they go together.
Analysis score
Maximum 72 for a cohort study.
Where the score came from
Doctors and patients got money rewards for lowering bad cholesterol. When both got rewarded together, cholesterol went down more. Just rewarding one didn’t help much.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 568 / 100
Quality score
Groups of people are followed over time to see who develops an outcome. Strong for identifying risk factors and associations, but cannot prove causation as firmly as RCTs.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes, shared rewards made a real difference—about 8 more points of cholesterol drop, which can lower heart disease risk.
- 2Shared rewards: cholesterol dropped by 33.6 mg/dL.
- 3Doctor-only or patient-only rewards: drops of 25–28 mg/dL, like no reward.
- 4Doctors who liked rewards had better results: up to 37.4 mg/dL drop.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Healthcare
Year
2017
Authors
Tianyu Liu, D. Asch, K. Volpp, Jingsan Zhu, Wenli Wang, A. Troxel, A. Adejare, Darra D. Finnerty, Karen Hoffer, J. Shea
Related Content
Claims (3)
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.
Most doctors who treat patients at high risk for heart problems think it's fair to offer money rewards to both doctors and patients to encourage better care — and their opinions don’t change even after being in such a program for a year.
Doctors who see more patients each year are more likely to like the idea of getting paid extra for good care — and they also prefer sharing those bonuses with their patients.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.