New Pioneering Approach from Vitality to Help Members Live Longer in Good Health
24 November 2021
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New Pioneering Approach from Vitality to Help Members Live Longer in Good Health
Vitality has today announced a new personalised and data driven approach to support people to take a life changing action that will maximise the number of years a member could live in good health.Called, Next Best Action, the new approach will use Vitality’s data science capabilities and expertise in understanding individual health risks, to provide members with the one action that would have the biggest impact on their future health.
The new initiative works by:
1. Predicting the one action that is likely to have the most significant improvement a member’s health and long-term health span.
2. Recommending a personalised journey with tailored support through newly created pathways
3. Incentivising them to take this action, through additional Vitality points and status boosts within the Vitality Programme
Neville Koopowitz, CEO of Vitality said: “Health and wellbeing is at the forefront of everyone's mind as we come out of the pandemic, yet we know that while most people want to make changes to improve their health, people often struggle to know where to start, and what will make the biggest difference to them and give them more years in good health.
“As part of today’s launch, we have combined our clinical and actuarial skills, together with our expertise in behavioural change, to tackle this very issue. Our members will now be able to better understand how their lifestyle choices impact both their length and quality of life, alongside receiving both personalised support and incentives that will help them make and maintain these changes.
“This pioneering level of personalisation is new for the industry and one I am confident will bring about healthier lifestyle choices across our membership base, not only delivering meaningful change for them, but also providing benefits for advisers, us as a business and wider society too, which is what we call shared value insurance.”
The pathways that form part of the Next Best Action include maintaining and quitting smoking, losing weight, getting more active, managing stress and burnout and improving physical activity. Members will be offered programmes to follow and support from Vitality Coaches, and clinicians, where appropriate.
Last month, Vitality published research that quantified the widening gap between lifespan (life expectancy) and healthspan (the number of years lived in good health), finding a diminishing quality of life in later years. To support the new initiative, Vitality has taken the healthspan algorithm created as part of this research, bringing it to sit alongside Vitality Age**, within the annual Vitality Health Review* that members complete, found within Vitality's Member Zone.
Next Best Action is offered in addition to the existing points and incentives found within the Vitality Programme whereby people are rewarded with regular rewards and discounts from Vitality’s wide range of partners.
Vitality will also today announce a number of new reward partners as part of the evolution of the Vitality Programme***, which include more ways to get active and more Active Rewards which act as further incentives to drive positive behaviour change.
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Notes to editors
* Vitality Health Review: an annual survey for members that looks at a members physical activity, nutrition, mental wellbeing, alcohol consumption and smoking levels to provide each member with an overview as to how healthy they are.
**Vitality Age, an easy way to help you understand more about your overall health. Our calculator provides a risk-based age relative to a variety of health factors . The algorithm takes into account details such as your weight, the amount and intensity of exercise, cholesterol, eating habits, levels of happiness and alcohol consumption.
*** Vitality has announced a number of new partners – a separate full press release is available detailing them (available from 24 November).