A Pragmatic Trial of E-Cigarettes, Incentives, and Drugs for Smoking Cessation

Abstract

In this pragmatic trial of smoking cessation, financial incentives added to free cessation aids resulted in a higher rate of sustained smoking abstinence than free cessation aids alone. Among smokers who received usual care (information and motivational text messages), the addition of free cessation aids or e-cigarettes did not provide a benefit. (Funded by the Vitality Institute; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02328794 .).

Financial incentives improve rates of sustained smoking cessation in the workplace

“…This trial used an opt-out approach and found that even the most effective intervention (deposit redemption) only resulted in a quit rate at six months of 2.9% across the full cohort. This was much lower than the six-month quit rate in the engaged cohort (12.7%), which is consistent with the rates seen in previous opt-in trials 1. The authors also suggested that offering e-cigarettes to unselected smokers may not promote abstinence from combustible cigarettes 3.…”

“…However, there is limited evidence for the comparable effectiveness of these initiatives 1. A Cochrane review that assessed whether incentives led to higher long-term quit rates, concluded that they appear to boost cessation rates while they are in place 2.…”

Defending evidence informed policy making from ideological attack

“…Providing people with money additional to their welfare entitlements that is conditional on their adopting certain behaviours, such as vaccinating or enrolling their children in school or adhering to medical treatment, is an effective means of promoting health 22. We can imagine that evaluations might show, as behavioural economics theory suggests,23 that the optimal approach is to give people pre-banked payments but withdraw these in response to unhealthy behaviours—although this hypothesis was not supported by a recent trial of approaches to smoking cessation, highlighting the need for empirical evaluation 24. Further studies might find that making welfare entitlements contingent on healthy behaviour would amplify health benefits.…”

Cost‐effectiveness and cost–utility analysis of a work‐place smoking cessation intervention with and without financial incentives

“…Smoking cessation interventions at the work-place have been shown to be an effective approach to reach smokers and stimulate quitting smoking [11]. In a workplace setting, successful interventions are group smoking cessation counselling and financial incentives for quit success [11,[15][16][17]. Stimulating smoking cessation at the work-place has benefits for both the employee and the employer.…”