Money motivates smokers to quit
Notley C, Gentry S, Livingstone‐Banks J, Bauld L, Perera R, Hartmann‐Boyce J. Incentives for smoking cessation. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2019, Issue 7. Art. No.: CD004307. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD004307.pub6. Click here
“These findings, published by the Cochrane Library, contain the results of 33 trials in eight countries, encompassing more than 21,000 participants trying to give up cigarettes. This included 10 trials looking at pregnant women trying to quit.
The scientists found that the size of the monetary reward on offer made no difference to the chance of quitting, and that even small rewards increased the likelihood of a smoker quitting.
Previous work had found concerns with using financial incentives to quit, suggesting they were only effective for the time they were in place. However, Notley and her team have collated more recent results, all of which look at the effects in the long term, at least six months after the smokers initially quit.”
