The use of financial incentives in promoting smoking cessation

Abstract

Objective Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. and world. Despite the availability of numerous therapies for smoking cessation, additional efficacious interventions are greatly needed. We provide a narrative review of published studies evaluating financial incentives for smoking cessation and discuss the parameters important for ensuring the efficacy of incentive interventions for smoking cessation. Methods Published studies that evaluated the impact of incentives to promote smoking cessation and included an appropriate control or comparison condition were identified and reviewed. Results Incentives are efficacious for promoting smoking abstinence across the general population of smokers as well as substance abusers, adolescents, patients with pulmonary disease, patients with serious mental illness and other challenging subgroups. To develop and implement an effective incentive treatment for smoking, special attention should be paid to biochemical verification of smoking status, incentive magnitude and the schedule of incentive delivery. Conclusion Consistent with the extensive literature showing that incentives are effective in reducing illicit drug use, a large body of evidence supports their effectiveness in reducing smoking. Continued efforts are warranted to further develop and disseminate incentive-based treatments for smoking cessation across clinical settings and populations.

Benefits of Incentives for Breastfeeding and Smoking cessation in pregnancy (BIBS): a mixed-methods study to inform trial design

“…211,213 In four trials 107,175,176,179 of 1308 participants, significant effects on breastfeeding up to 6 weeks after discharge were observed for the provision of various combinations of gifts, vouchers, raffles and breast pumps contingent on self-reported breastfeeding compared with no incentive or a much smaller incentive. However, there was too much variation among both the intervention and the BCT components for meta-analysis and caution is required in interpreting these findings.…”

Money as motivation to quit: A survey of a non-random Australian sample of socially disadvantaged smokers' views of the acceptability of cash incentives

“…Higgins et al (2012) update this review and come to the same conclusion that PFIs show considerable promise for the short-term cessation of smoking among socioeconomically disadvantaged pregnant women. Two recent reviews have examined the effectiveness of financial incentives for two different socially disadvantaged groups (Sigmon and Patrick, 2012;Tidey, 2012). Sigmon and Patrick (2012) examined the evidence for the efficacy of PFIs for "special populations" one of which was substance abusers.…”

“…Two recent reviews have examined the effectiveness of financial incentives for two different socially disadvantaged groups (Sigmon and Patrick, 2012;Tidey, 2012). Sigmon and Patrick (2012) examined the evidence for the efficacy of PFIs for "special populations" one of which was substance abusers. They found that incentives were effective at encouraging cessation in four of five trials with opioid-maintained patients and that effect was moderated by incentive magnitude-the higher the incentive amount the more likely a positive outcome.…”

Continued Deficits of the Perceived Harms of Cigarette Smoking Among Young Adults: Insights from Participants on Amazon Mechanical Turk

“…Aggressive marketing campaigns by cigarette companies have specifically targeted these lower income groups (including at a global level); however, financial incentives may provide a channel to persuade individuals to consider discontinuing smoking and thus "buying time" for them to consider adopting smoking cessation practices [28][29][30]. Though no incentive program has been developed to alter adult smoking behaviors for pediatric endpoints, this work may be informative for future research that is looking to use financial incentives beyond the typical focus of yielding abstinence among primary smokers [13,31].…”