Trial to Incentivise Adherence for Diabetes

Type II diabetes is associated with a host of adverse and costly complications, including heart attacks, strokes, blindness, kidney failure, and severe neuropathy that may result in amputations. For those with diabetes, glycemic control is essential to minimize complications but many fail at being sufficiently adherent to their treatment. The investigators propose to test two incentive-based intervention strategies aimed at improving diabetes outcomes amongst patients with uncontrolled glycemic levels. The incentives are tied either to processes aimed at improving blood sugar levels (glucose testing, physical activity and medication adherence) or directly to the intermediary outcome (blood glucose in the acceptable range). While process incentives are likely to provide more motivation for treatment adherence, as these goals may be comparably easier to meet, these incentives only reward intermediary outcomes and it might be more effective to reward successfully achieving a health outcome directly.