Applying Behavioral Economics Theories to Interventions for Persons with Diabetes

Purpose of review: To introduce behavioral economics (BE), provide a description of how recent prevention and treatment interventions in persons with diabetes have incorporated BE in their intervention strategies, and discuss how BE could be used to inform new treatments for the clinical setting or research.

Recent findings: In most of the trials described, researchers incorporated BE into their design in the form of incentives, which can align with present bias, optimism bias, and loss aversion. With only two exceptions, these trials reported preliminary support for using incentives to promote lifestyle modifications and diabetes-related tasks. Additionally, two trials reported promising results for behavior change strategies informed by default bias, while three trials reported promising results for behavior change strategies informed by social norms. Recent trials incorporating BE in prevention and treatment interventions for persons with diabetes generally report promising results, though gaps exist for research and clinical deployment.