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Grant of 2.5 million euros by the Dutch Heart Foundation and the Ministry of Public Health, Welfare and Sport.
A new health programme will reward patients
with - or at risk of developing - cardio-vascular
diseases for keeping to a healthy lifestyle.
Projectleader Andrea Evers together with other
collaborators has been awarded 2.5 million euros
by the Dutch Heart Foundation and the Ministry of
Public Health, Welfare and Sport.
Patients can earn points by stopping smoking, for
example, or watching their weight, taking lessons
at a gym or buying healthy food. They will then
get a price reduction at large retail chains and
on excursions. The BENEFIT consortium, that is
made up of many different organisations and
companies, will use the 2.5 million euros to
develop the programme and implement it nationally.
The project is headed by the Department of Health,
Medical and Neuropsychology at Leiden
University's Faculty of Social and Behavioural
Sciences, the Cardiology Department at Leiden
University Medical Center (LUMC) and the eHealth
company Vital10.
A healthy lifestyle is important for everyone.
Following a heart attack patients are often very
motivated to live more healthily. However, after a
period of revalidation and supervision, it often
proves difficult to keep up a healthy lifestyle.
'In particular the transition from the
revalidation centre to a patient's own
environment can be the point where many patients
revert to their former lifestyle,' explains
health psychologist Prof. dr. Andrea Evers
(Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences,
Leiden University). The BENEFIT programme is
intended as an extra impetus to continue a healthy
style of living, in addition to revalidation and
monitoring by the GP.
Making a healthy lifestyle
attractive
BENEFIT combines individual coaching - digital or
face-to-face - with a reward system. Participants
have access via the computer to a personal health
portal that shows the state of their lifestyle and
health. The health portal shows, for example, data
from their activity monitor, blood pressure meter,
weighing scales and apps on their mobile phone.
Participants can earn points by, for example,
walking enough steps every day, not smoking,
eating healthy food and, if necessary checking
their weight, blood pressure, blood sugar and/or
cholesterol at set times. 'We want to make it
attractive for people to adopt a healthy lifestyle
and also reward them for keeping to it,'
medical psychologist Dr. Veronica Janssen
(Cardiology Department, LUMC) explains.
'Participants can take part in a health game
to earn extra points, by doing challenges; these
could be things like following lessons at the gym
for a month, or going on organised walks.
They can also earn points by involving friends and
family in a healthy lifestyle.' The points can
be redeemed for pleasant days out and discounts on
products at large retail chains.
Reward
An independent users' committee will assess
whether the products for which the participants
can earn a discount are appropriate for a healthy
lifestyle. 'We'd also like to give a
discount on the individual contribution to health
care insurances,' Evers says. The
privacy of the data collected on the participants
will of course be well protected to avoid any
improper use of the data.
National
implementation
Healthcare providers will initially offer BENEFIT
to patients who have - or who are at an increased
risk of developing - cardio-vascular disease.
Ultimately the programme will be introduced
nationally and anyone in the Netherlands who is
interested will be able to take part. 'The
BENEFIT consortium is expressly a public-private
consortium so as to bring together care and
commerce in a responsible and stimulating
way,' explains cardiologist Dr. Roderik
Kraaijenhagen (director of Vital10). 'By
working together we can develop a new ecosystem
and funding model that will stimulate healthy
living and that will also have benefits for
businesses and individuals.' After five years
BENEFIT should be able to carry on without the
need for a subsidy.