Association for Behavior Analysis International

Recent discounting research has shown that steep discounting is associated with a wide variety of problem behaviors, such as obesity, pathological gambling, and substance abuse. The current set of talks describe in more detail either how different pathological behavior is related to aspects of discounting, or how changing specific aspects of the discounting task can result in measurable changes in discounting. The specific problem behaviors include individuals with extreme body mass index (BMI) levels (both underweight and overweight), pre-diabetes and Type II diabetes. The specific aspect of the discounting task that are manipulated is how the discounting task is described to the participants, as either an individual or group outcome. The current set of talks will show the importance of discounting research in relation to important problem behaviors, and how changes in discounting procedures can change discounting outcomes.

Delay discounting is associated with body mass index (BMI), with individuals who discount more having higher BMIs. This same relationship was found when a social component was added during a social temporal discounting procedure. However, no study has tested whether the social component by itself is related to BMI. The current study tested the relationships between social discounting, delay discounting, and BMI. Eight hundred seven undergraduates completed delay and social discounting measures, and a demographic questionnaire from which BMI was calculated. Social discounting was not significantly related to age-adjusted or non-age adjusted BMI. However, using non-age-adjusted BMI scores and dichotomizing individuals as either non-obese/obese resulted in a significant relationship between social discounting and BMI in the predicted direction, whereby participants with a higher BMI shared significantly more than non-obese individuals. Consistent with previous research, there was a significant relationship between delay discounting and BMI, and a significant correlation between delay and social discounting. Additionally, participants with low BMI (< 18.5) appeared to substantially contribute to the significant results. The current results replicated a previous delay discounting and BMI relationship, but also demonstrate the need to standardize how BMI is calculated and focus on participants with low BMI in relation to discounting measures.

Diabetes is a chronic disease requiring extensive self-care such as daily blood glucose monitoring, diet and exercise routine adherence, foot care, and medication self-administration during disease management. Increased delay discounting, and impulsivity more generally, may decrease adherence with these self-care behaviors. To examine the relationship between delay discounting and diabetic self-care behavior, 101 adults (~ age = 51) diagnosed with either prediabetes (n = 51) or Type 2 diabetes (n = 50) completed a delay discounting task, the behavioral inhibition scale (BIS), self-care profiles, a diabetes knowledge test, and a measure of diabetes management self-efficacy. Higher self-reported knowledge levels and self-efficacy both independently predicted better adherence to foot care practices. There was no relationship between delay discounting or BIS and diabetes self-care adherence for participants either diagnosed with prediabetes or Type II diabetes. Although previous research had indicated a relationship between delay discounting and diabetes (Lebeau et al., 2016; Reach et al., 2011), the current results did not replicate those results. There are procedural differences that may explain the discrepant findings. However, the current results are consistent with Stupiansky et al. (2013) who found that diabetes-specific self-efficacy partially mediated the relationship between impulse control and diabetes self-care, when impulse control was self-reported. Future research is needed to identify the exact association between diabetes, self-efficacy for foot care, and impulse control.