A theoretically grounded systematic review of material incentives for weight loss: implications for interventions.

Background: Providing material incentives for weight loss is a class of intervention strategies that has received considerable attention; however, the effectiveness of this class of strategies is uncertain. Attending to distinctions among incentive strategies may clarify our understanding of prior work and inform the design of future interventions.

Purpose: A theoretical framework is proposed that distinguishes between four classes of incentive strategies and is used to organize randomized controlled trials of material incentives for weight loss.