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Objective To elicit a patient's willingness to participate in a diabetes pay-for-performance for patient (P4P4P) program using a discrete choice experiment method. Methods The survey was conducted in March 2013. Our sample was drawn from patients with diabetes at five hospitals in Taiwan ( International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification code 250). The sample size was 838 patients. The discrete choice experiment questionnaire included the attributes monthly cash rewards, exercise time, diet control, and program duration. We estimated a bivariate probit model to derive willingness-to-accept levels after accounting for the characteristics (e.g., severity and comorbidity) of patients with diabetes. Results The preferred program was a 3-year program involving 30 minutes of exercise per day and flexible diet control. Offering an incentive of approximately US $67 in cash per month appears to increase the likelihood that patients with diabetes will participate in the preferred P4P4P program by approximately 50%. Conclusions Patients with more disadvantageous characteristics (e.g., elderly, low income, greater comorbidity, and severity) could have less to gain from participating in the program and thus require a higher monetary incentive to compensate for the disutility caused by participating in the program's activities. Our result demonstrates that a modest financial incentive could increase the likelihood of program participation after accounting for the attributes of the P4P4P program and patients' characteristics.

Background Wheezing episodes are common in young infants. However, the molecular mechanism of wheezing is unclear, and very few therapeutic regimens are effective. Objective This study investigated the genetic and environmental factors predisposing to infant wheezing in a birth cohort study. Methods A cohort of 1211 pregnant women was recruited for this study. Infant wheezing episodes during the first 18 months of life were correlated to parental atopic history, parental smoking, prematurity, CB IgE levels, and the sequence variant (G+38A) of the Clara cell protein 10 (CC10) gene encoding a secretary anti-inflammatory CC10 protein. Results Nine hundred eighty-three infants completed umbilical cord blood collection, and 813 infants completed the 18-month postnatal follow-up. Twenty-two percent of the infants experienced at least 1 wheezing episode, and 6.6% of the infants experienced frequent wheezing (≥3 episodes). Multivariate logistic regression showed that male sex and the CC10 G+38A polymorphism, but not prematurity, CB IgE level, passive smoking, or parental atopy, were predictors of frequent wheezing. Further studies found that infant frequent wheezing was significantly associated with the CC10 +38AA genotype and lower plasma CC10 levels at 18 months of age ( P = .046), and infants with acute wheezing episodes had significantly lower CC10 levels than those without ( P = .023). No association of wheezing episodes with allergic sensitization was observed in this cohort population. Conclusion Infant frequent wheezing is associated with the CC10 G+38A polymorphism and lower CC10 levels but not infant atopy. Clinical implications Lower CC10 expression, but not allergy sensitization, is involved in the pathogenesis of infant frequent wheezing.