Can cash help people quit smoking?
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Can paying people to quit smoking actually work?
In one randomized trial, 878 employees who smoked were split at random. One group got quit-program information; the other got the same information plus cash for each step.
$100 to finish a quit program, $250 to quit within six months, $400 to stay quit six more. Every quit was confirmed by a test.
At 9 to 12 months, 14.7% vs 5.0% had quit. At 15 to 18 months, 9.4% vs 3.6% were still quit.
Sources
Volpp KG et al. NEJM 2009. doi:10.1056/NEJMsa0806819
What the study says
- “We randomly assigned 878 employees of a multinational company based in the United States...”
- “The financial incentives were $100 for completion of a smoking-cessation program, $250 for cessation of smoking within 6 months after study enrollment, as confirmed by a biochemical test, and $400 for abstinence for an additional 6 months after the initial cessation, as confirmed by a biochemical test.”
- “The incentive group had significantly higher rates of smoking cessation than did the information-only group 9 or 12 months after enrollment (14.7% vs. 5.0%, P<0.001) and 15 or 18 months after enrollment (9.4% vs. 3.6%, P<0.001). Incentive-group participants also had significantly higher rates of enrollment in a smoking-cessation program (15.4% vs. 5.4%, P<0.001), completion of a smoking-cessation program (10.8% vs. 2.5%, P<0.001)...”
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