Financial Incentives and Employee Health: Literature Review

Obesity, tobacco consumption and inactivity are among the major risk factors of health. Approximately 790,000 EU citizens died prematurely because of tobacco consumption, alcohol consumption, unhealthy diets and the lack of physical activity in 2016 (OED, 2018). Financial incentives are means to encourage changes in one’s behaviour. These incentives can be used to influence employees to have a healthier lifestyle. It is beneficial for the employer to encourage healthy behaviour to reduce productivity loss within a firm. This literature review analyses how health risk factors can be reduced with financial incentives in order to improve the health of employees. This study analyses the effect of financial incentives on physical activity, tobacco consumption and weight.