Income, health, and the National Lottery

doi:10.1136/bmj.323.7327.1438

BMJ 2001;323:1438-1439 ( 22-29 December )

Editorials

Income, health, and the National Lottery

The lottery is one of the world's largest randomised trials

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Most people in the United Kingdom have taken part in one of the world's largest trials of one of the most important determinantsof health. Unfortunately, neither the participants nor the organisersknow about the trial and no one has collected follow updata.

Each month, more than £150m is randomly redistributed among 60% of the adult population in the National Lottery.¹ Over£16bn has been redistributed since the lottery began in 1994.Changing the redistribution of a small fraction of this moneycould create a randomised trial that reliably assessed the speedand extent to which increases in income improve health. The basicstudy design would be simple. Instead of lump sums, winners wouldreceive regular, income-like payments (such as £40, £80, or £160a month for a decade). Follow up of these winners, and a largerandom selection of non-winners, would assess effects on outcomessuch as diet, . . . [Full text of this article]

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If only lottery winnings were randomly assigned: Ian Walker
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