Opportunity 

Over 200,000 children in the United States are affected by type 1 diabetes each year. As children reach adolescence and young adulthood, they often face challenges in diabetes care, like sticking with their glucose monitoring plan.   

Intervention 

We leveraged Way to Health to test a digital health intervention using wireless glucometers and financial incentives to improve diabetes control. The six-month clinical trial enrolled 90 adolescents and young adults with type 1 diabetes from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. All participants received a wireless glucometer and were given a glucose monitoring goal.  

Participants completed a baseline HbA1c measurement and were randomly assigned to a control or incentive arm. Participants in the control arm received no additional interventions. Participants in the incentive arm received a loss-framed financial incentive and daily feedback on performance for three months and were then followed for another three months. 

Impact 

Glucometer use adherence increased from 19 percent in the control arm to 50 percent in the incentive arm during the three-month intervention period. However, there were no differences in HbA1c at three or six months.