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: HbA_1c, hemoglobin A_1c.