Ethical acceptability of incentives - diabetic retinopathy screening
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The impact of socio-demographic factors on the perceived ethical acceptability of using financial incentives to attend diabetic retinopathy screening
IRAS ID
127288
Contact name
Ivo Vlaev
Contact email
Research summary
Deprivation is linked higher levels of diabetes, and these communities are less likely to attend screening for diabetic retinopathy. Scanlon et al (2008) found that in areas with the greatest socioeconomic deprivation, diabetic prevalence is highest and attendance at screening is lowest. If screening programmes are only reaching the less deprived, they have the potential to exacerbate existing inequalities in health.
A challenge for policy makers is to find effective strategies to recruit those hard to reach individuals. Financial incentives could be a powerful mechanism to increase participation. However this raises ethical questions, such as whether financial incentives are coercive or whether the NHS should pay people to look after their own health.
The aim of the project is to explore the ethical acceptability of using financial incentives to attend diabetic retinopathy screening, with clinicians and diabetics. A survey would explore these hypothetical ethical issues with the people who would potentially be involved in such a scheme.
REC name
Social Care REC
REC reference
13/IEC08/0033
Date of REC Opinion
16 Jul 2013
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion