Table 3. Intervention Participant Quotes.
Theme | Illustrative Quotes |
---|---|
Financial Incentives | |
Gain vs loss framing of incentives | “I don’t like to lose anything…something I would consider almost a possession. I already have $60.00 and then that’s the equivalent of having three $20.00 bills and every time you miss, somebody comes over and says ‘ha,’ you owe me $2.00.” “I think [being able to win money] would be much better, because it was kind of stressful seeing all the money go away… it's probably easier to keep track of too, just adding the $2.00.” |
Cumulative effect of loss incentives | “If I had a bad day, I didn’t lose too much. But if I had a really bad week, then I would lose a lot of money, and it was really just when things started stacking up. Then that’s when I kind of realized that I need to get it together and start checking my blood sugar more or taking care of my diabetes better.” |
Personal responsibility | “The money gave some encouragement to test myself, but after a little, it was more about testing myself for me and not the money.” |
Wireless, Smartphone-Connected Glucometers | |
Tracking and visualizing trends | “The biggest thing that's helpful is that [the glucometer] translates data onto my phone, which lets me visually see trends.” “I don’t really go back and look through my [old] meter to look at my numbers. So if you were to ask me, I wouldn’t know. But because I had the meter that hooked up to my phone, I had a list of all my numbers which was helpful.” |
Ubiquitous phone use | “I was just always on my phone and I saw the app, it would kind of remind myself oh, maybe I should check my blood sugar now even though I wouldn’t typically be thinking of something like that.” |
Ability to easily share glucose data | “I liked that I could connect my glucometer to other phones so my mother didn't have to call and ask me. She got updates sent to her phone, and it was up-to-date technology.” |
Correlation Between Adherence to Glucose Monitoring and Change in HbA1c | |
Believed increased glucose monitoring led to improved glycemic control | Participant with 2.2% HbA1c drop after incentive period: “I think that mostly it was the fact that I was checking my glucose more than I used to that really helped.” |
Reasons for imperfect correlation between glucose monitoring and HbA1c | “…because a lot of the times, I can just test my sugar and not do my insulin because it’s in another room or I’m busy doing something.” Participant with 0.8% HbA1c increase after incentive period: “I started [the study] during the second semester of school last year…school kinda makes my blood sugars go all over the place, and there’s just a lot of stressfulness with my semester last year.” |
Abbreviation: HbA1c, hemoglobin A1c.