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Review
. 2021 Oct 1;23(11):153.
doi: 10.1007/s11886-021-01584-2.

The Role of Behavioral Economics in Improving Cardiovascular Health Behaviors and Outcomes

Allison J Hare  1   2   3 , Mitesh S Patel  4   5   6 , Kevin Volpp  7   5   6   8 , Srinath Adusumalli  7   9   4   10
Affiliations
Review

The Role of Behavioral Economics in Improving Cardiovascular Health Behaviors and Outcomes

Allison J Hare et al. Curr Cardiol Rep. .

Abstract

Purpose of review: Behavioral economics represents a promising set of principles to inform the design of health-promoting interventions. Techniques from the field have the potential to increase quality of cardiovascular care given suboptimal rates of guideline-directed care delivery and patient adherence to optimal health behaviors across the spectrum of cardiovascular care delivery.

Recent findings: Cardiovascular health-promoting interventions have demonstrated success in using a wide array of principles from behavioral economics, including loss framing, social norms, and gamification. Such approaches are becoming increasingly sophisticated and focused on clinical cardiovascular outcomes in addition to health behaviors as a primary endpoint. Many approaches can be used to improve patient decisions remotely, which is particularly useful given the shift to virtual care in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Numerous applications for behavioral economics exist in the cardiovascular care delivery space, though more work is needed before we will have a full understanding of ways to best leverage such applications in each clinical context.

Keywords: Behavioral economics; Cardiology; Cardiovascular health; Financial incentives; Health policy; Healthcare delivery design.

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Conflict of interest statement

Dr. Patel reports being founder and owner of Catalyst Health LLC, a technology and behavior change consulting firm. He is also on the advisory board for Life.io, Healthmine Services Inc., and Holistic Industries.

Dr. Volpp reports personal fees and other from VAL Health (part-owner of consulting firm), outside the submitted work.

The other authors declare that there were no conflicts of interest for this work.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Patient- and clinician-facing opportunities to improve decision-making around cardiovascular health behaviors and outcomes, embedded with examples of behavioral economics techniques that can magnify the impact of health-promoting interventions
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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