Coupling Financial Incentives With Direct Mail in Population-Based Practice.

Financial incentives are being used increasingly to encourage a wide array of health behaviors because of their well-established efficacy. However, little is known about how to translate incentive-based strategies to public health practice geared toward improving population-level health, and a dearth of research exists on how individuals respond to incentives through public health communication strategies such as direct mail. This study reports results of a population-based randomized controlled trial testing a direct mail, incentive-based intervention for promoting mammography uptake.

The pain trajectory during treadmill testing in peripheral artery disease.

Background: Ischemia-induced pain associated with walking (claudication) in peripheral artery disease limits mobility and diminishes quality of life. Self-reports of pain during standardized treadmill testing are used in clinical trials to assess the efficacy of interventions.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to model pain trajectories during a peak walking test after 12 weeks of treatment in participants in four randomly assigned treatment groups (treadmill, arm ergometry, combination, and usual care) compared with baseline pain trajectories.

Effect of direct mail as a population-based strategy to increase mammography use among low-income underinsured women ages 40 to 64 years.

Women with inadequate health insurance have lower mammography rates than the general population. Finding successful strategies to enroll eligible women is an ongoing challenge for the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program. To test the effectiveness of a population-based strategy to increase mammography utilization among low-income underinsured women ages 40 to 64 years, a randomized trial was conducted to assess the effect of two mailed interventions on mammography utilization through Sage, the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program in Minnesota.