Behavioral Economics Finds the Right Triggers for Diabetes Prevention

If an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, it is natural to wonder what drives people’s decisions about their health in the first place. Increasingly, the field of behavioral economics is providing insights into the triggers for lifestyle choices that can lead to healthier behaviors.

Behavioral economics combines concepts from psychology and economics to investigate how people actually behave — influenced by emotions, identity, environment and the framing of information presented to them — as opposed to how they would behave if they were being perfectly rational, with unlimited willpower and solely acting out of self-interest. Although many lessons of behavioral economics apply to public health challenges, five can be harnessed to support lifestyle change in the prevention and management of diabetes.

Read the article at Endocrine Today.

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