Prospective Intention-Based Lifestyle Contracts: mHealth Technology and Responsibility in Healthcare.

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Bioethics
• Health Policy

Background:

• Rising costs of lifestyle-related diseases strain public healthcare systems.
• Individual responsibility in disease is a potential healthcare rationing criterion.
• Existing literature focuses on retrospective responsibility, neglecting prospective responsibility and mobile health integration.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate public attitudes towards individual responsibility, healthcare rationing, and lifestyle contracts.
• Examine the acceptability of mobile health technology in enforcing lifestyle accountability.
• Propose a novel model for prospective intention-based lifestyle contracts.

Main Methods:

• Survey of 81 members of the UK general public.
• Exploration of attitudes towards individual responsibility and healthcare rationing.
• Analysis of public views on prospective vs. retrospective responsibility and lifestyle contracts with mobile health technology.

Main Results:

• Empirical findings on public attitudes towards healthcare rationing and responsibility.
• Insights into the acceptability of lifestyle contracts and mobile health technology for accountability.
• Identification of public preferences for prospective, intention-based models over retrospective ones.

Conclusions:

• Public attitudes suggest a need for prospective responsibility models in healthcare.
• Mobile health technology presents opportunities for novel accountability mechanisms.
• A proposed model of prospective intention-based lifestyle contracts is more ethically aligned with public intuition.