Scientific Attempt Smokers pay to stop smoking with money?

Smokers become more successful with non-smokers when they get paid
Smoking is harmful to our health. For this reason, it is strongly recommended for all people to quit smoking. Unfortunately, it is not easy to cope with the craving for cigarettes and many people try in their lives to quit smoking several times, but unfortunately mostly in vain. Researchers now found that many smokers would be willing to quit smoking for a financial incentive.

Researchers at Stanford University Medical School in California have now discovered in an investigation that many smokers would quit smoking if they received money for it. So, if smoking cessation costs were lower than the cost of treating the aftermath of smoking, it might actually be worthwhile paying smokers to stop smoking. The physicians published the results of their study in the medical journal "Journal of the American College of Cardiology" (JACC).

Many people want to quit smoking. Most of them do not succeed. A new study has now shown that people are more successful in quitting smoking when they get paid. (Image: mbruxelle / fotolia.com)

More than a third of the paid subjects stop smoking
Is it possible to dissuade people from smoking through a financial incentive? In one study, Swiss physicians found that more than one-third of smoking subjects could be persuaded to stop smoking through payments. In the group of smokers with a relatively low income, more than a third could be made into payments by breaking with the harmful long-term habit. The maximum amount paid out was $ 1,650. So, financial incentives could increase rates of long-term smoking cessation, say the authors.

44 percent of paid non-smokers are still abstinent after three months
Also, three months after the weaning program was completed, 44 percent of former smokers were abstinent when paid in advance. If subjects were not paid, this figure was only six percent. Even when payments stopped after six months, more smokers who were paid stayed abstinent.

After half a year, 36 percent of paid participants still do not smoke
After six months, 36 percent of paid subjects still did not smoke. For the unpaid subjects, the figure was only six percent. After eighteen months, only one in ten of the paid participants smoked, the scientists explain. For previously unpaid smokers, this figure was significantly higher. In light of these findings, the impact of large financial incentives to give up smoking should be further investigated and documented.

Participants smoked about 16 cigarettes a day before the study
The study included 805 low-income subjects who all wanted to stop smoking. They were randomly divided into two different groups, one group received payment, the other group received no payments, say the authors. On average, participants had an annual income of over $ 20,000. The subjects smoked an average of about 16 cigarettes a day. 43 percent of the respondents were students and 19 percent of the participants were unemployed. Whether the same incentives would work for richer people is not known, the experts add.

Subjects were screened at irregular intervals for tobacco abstinence
All participants received educational leaflets and access to a website with information about smoking. The subjects were checked at irregular intervals, whether they still smoked cigarettes. Although many participants did not quit smoking and 81 people left the study, there was still a significant number of subjects willing to give up smoking when they were paid, researchers explain.

Cost of weaning
Paying smoker for quitting has at least a short-term success, explains author Professor Dr. med. Judith Prochaska from Stanford University Medical School in California. However, the results raise some questions. For example how big and frequent the payments have to be? At 18 months, the difference in abstinence between paid and unpaid smokers was six percent. It could cost up to $ 28,000 to turn a smoker into a nonsmoker in the long term, explains Prochaska. Despite the high cost, payments could be a productive alternative for certain smokers, the expert adds.

The reward program could be a real incentive for some people
Existing approaches to tobacco cessation with medication and counseling may be more effective for educated workers with health insurance and higher incomes, Prochaska says. However, because many smokers are increasingly people with low education and low income, a reward program could still make sense, explains Prochaska. Tobacco dependence is a deeply rooted social problem, which requires a multi-pronged approach, the physician continues. A suitable approach to combating smoking would be a combined pharmacological and motivational treatment of the behavior of smokers. This should then be supported by policies, taxes and new innovations and technologies. The incentives have the potential to be part of the solution, Prochaska adds. (As)