OBJECTIVES: The last decade several studies have proven that lifestyle interventions can be effective for people with or at risk for diabetes. Because effectiveness of preventive interventions is affected by non-participation (adherence), it is important to understand factors influencing people’s willingness to participate in a lifestyle intervention. Therefore, the aim of this exploratory analysis is to examine which factors of a lifestyle program influence its valuation and willingness to participate. METHODS: We used conjoint analysis to empirically examine associations between the factors that influence participation and participants’ valuation of an intervention and participants’ willingness to participate in a lifestyle intervention. For this purpose participants received a questionnaire with four hypothetical lifestyle interventions. They were asked to value the hypothetical scenarios with a grade from ‘1’ to ‘10’ and furthermore they were asked if they would be willing to participate in these hypothetical programs. Linear and logistic regression techniques were used for the analyses. RESULTS: The factors ‘group activity’, ‘counselling’ and ‘receiving money’ were positively associated with the scores of the valuation of the programmes. Logistic regression analysis showed that money was the only factor that was independently associated with respondents’ willingness to participate in a lifestyle intervention. Subgroup analysis showed that receiving an amount of money was not associated with willingness to participate, but having to pay is negatively associated with participation in the lifestyle intervention. CONCLUSIONS: It appeared that only financial disincentives were independently associated with willingness to participate in a lifestyle intervention. Our conjoint analysis results suggest that financial incentives, in the form of bonuses, cannot be used to encourage people to participate in lifestyle interventions. Financial incentives, in the form of payments might however discourage participation, regardless of the content of the program.