Parents' Willingness to Pay for Pediatric Weight Management Programs
Related Experiment Videos
Olivier Drouin1, Mona Sharifi1, Monica Gerber1
1Division of General Academic Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics (O Drouin, M Gerber, C Horan, and EM Taveras); Harvard-Wide Pediatric Health Services Research Fellowship (O Drouin and EM Taveras), Massachusetts General Hospital for Children; Department of Medicine (EJ Orav), Brigham and Women's Hospital; Department of Pediatrics (R Marshall), Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates; Department of Nutrition (EM Taveras), Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Mass; Division of General Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics (O Drouin), Centre hospitalier universitaire Sainte-Justine, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Section of General Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics (M Sharifi), Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn.
Objective:
To examine parents' interest in continuing and willingness to pay (WTP) for 2 pediatric weight management programs following their participation.
Methods:
Participants were parents of 2- to 12-year-old children with body mass index ≥ 85th percentile who participated in the Connect for Health trial. One group received enhanced primary care (EPC) and the other received EPC plus individualized coaching (EPC+C). At 1 year, we assessed parents' self-reported WTP for a similar program and the maximum amount ($/month) they would pay. We used multivariable regression to examine differences in WTP and WTP amount by intervention arm and by individual and family-level factors.
Results:
Of 638 parents who completed the survey, 85% were interested in continuing and 38% of those parents were willing to pay (31% in the EPC group and 45% in the EPC+C group). The median amount parents were willing to pay was $25/month (interquartile range, $15-$50). In multivariable models, the EPC+C parents were more likely to endorse WTP than the EPC parents (odds ratio, 1.53; 95% confidence interval, 1.05-2.22). Parents of children with Hispanic/Latino versus white ethnicity and those reporting higher satisfaction with the program were also more likely to endorse WTP.
Conclusions:
Most parents of children in a weight management program were interested in continuing it after it ended, but fewer were willing to pay out of pocket for it. A greater proportion of parents were willing to pay if the program included individualized health coaching.