Use of Incentives in forming healthy lifestyle habits from school to work transition

In 2008 the Medical Research Council commissioned research into the use of incentives to establish healthy lifestyle behaviours among young adults. The research is currently being undertaken by Bas Verplanken, and is due for completion in early 2011.

The transition from school to work is a major change in the course of people’s lives, bringing a new series of travel needs and challenges for young adults. With the increasing concern of obesity, especially among younger generations, the formation of healthy behaviours and active travel habits can have a strong positive effect, forming behaviours that will last throughout the years. Research has demonstrated how interventions focused on the changes in life events can yield results, but the challenge remains as to how to solidify these changes, especially among young people.

The use of incentives to sustain active travel and healthy behaviours, coupled with the research on lifecourse is a recent approach, and the project aims to provide a clearer understanding of the factors. The project has 3 main research questions; how the effect of incentives on the uptake and continuation of healthy behaviours differs when part of either: a health promotion initiative; a SDT and intention implementation theory program; or as part of a behavioural support program.

To research these hypotheses, a project was designed using a mixture of both focus groups to survey attitudes and guide the research proposals and methods, with the goal of generating a randomised controlled trial into the use of incentives upon healthy habit formation.

The project is currently being undertaken, and is due for completion in April 2011.