Willingness to pay for a cardiovascular prevention program in highly educated adults: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine adults' Willingness To Pay (WTP) for CardioVascular Disease (CVD) intervention programs of different intensities.

Methods: Three hundred fourteen participants were randomized to two study conditions: (i) CVD risk assessment/communication; (ii) CVD risk assessment/communication + a behavior change program. The behavior change program was aimed at increasing physical activity, reducing saturated fat intake and smoking cessation. It consisted of a tailored Web site and individual coaching with a self-selected dose. At post-assessment, WTP and perceived autonomy support items were included. The intervention dose was registered throughout the trial and post-hoc intervention dose groups were created. Pearson Chi-Square tests, Student's t-tests, one-way analyses of variance were used to examine WTP-differences between the study conditions and intervention dose groups.

Results: Twenty-four months after baseline, 61 and 135 participants of the control and intervention condition, respectively, completed the questionnaires. No WTP difference was found between the study conditions. However, participants that selected a higher intervention dose were willing to pay significantly more for their program (p < .05).

Conclusions: In general, people want to pay the same amount of money for a CVD prevention program, irrespective of the inclusion of a behavior change program. However, there seems to be an association between the self-selected dose of the latter program and the WTP.