Behavioral Economics and Intervention Science

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PROJECT SUMMARY CORE B: Behavioral Economics and Intervention Science (BEIS) Core The Vermont Center on Behavior and Health (VCBH) is dedicated to researching relationships between personal behavior patterns and risk for chronic disease and premature death. The overarching purpose of the Behavioral Economics and Intervention Sciences (BEIS) Core is to provide VCBH investigators with scientific and technical expertise and research infrastructure in three key areas. First, our Core's Decision-Making Module provides expertise in the study of behavioral choice and decision making, with an emphasis on investigating the core cognitive processes (e.g., executive functions) and biases in decision making that may increase vulnerability to risky health behaviors and undermine response to interventions. Toward this end, we have established the BEIS Core Assessment Service, wherein a highly-trained, mobile assessment team administers a comprehensive battery evaluating multiple domains of executive function and biased decision making that includes measures of attention, working memory, inhibition, error monitoring, and sensitivity to incentives, and temporal, probability, and social discounting of rewards. We customize assessment batteries so that they are tailored to the specific aims and population under investigation in individual studies, while also looking to facilitate and support thematically related research in behavioral economics across studies. Second, the BEIS Intervention Sciences Module provides unique expertise in the design and implementation of incentive-based and other behavioral and pharmacological interventions to promote health-related behavior change. We assist investigators in developing and tailoring interventions to the unique characteristics of the population and targeted risk behavior. We also have center expertise in the integration of technology with these interventions to increase their accessibility, while also potentially lowering treatment costs. Finally, our Core's Economic Modeling Module provides assistance with econometric analyses of interventions and health outcomes, including help with the preparation for and conduct of cost-effectiveness, cost-utility and cost-benefit analyses. This includes assistance in calculating the cost-offset associated with treatment outcomes (e.g., cost per life year gained, cost per quality-adjusted life years gained, net savings per dollar invested, and dollars saved per hospitalization case prevented). Taken together, the BEIS Core and its dedicated service modules will continue to provide the expertise and access to the assessments, interventions and technology, and economic modeling central to the research proposed within the VCBH and also across the UVM campus.