Incentives help pregnant women quit smoking

Smoking remains one of the most challenging habits to overcome, but new research suggests that rewards and incentives can provide the motivation needed to quit.

A recent study reveals that offering incentives not only helps individuals quit smoking but also sustains the results long after the rewards are no longer provided.

Quitting smoking using incentives

The study was spearheaded by researchers from the University of East Anglia (UEA), a respected academic institution with a keen interest in public health.

The research team decided to explore whether incentives could aid not just anyone, but specifically pregnant women in their journey to quit smoking.

Previous studies had hinted at the moderate efficacy of rewards in encouraging pregnant women to part with their smoking habits.

However, this fresh piece of research indicates a stronger correlation.

According to the research, there’s now “high certainty evidence” that incentive programs can indeed be successful for pregnant women aiming to give up smoking.

Rewards: A powerful ally against smoking

Professor Caitlin Notley, of UEA’s Norwich Medical School, shares that smoking is globally recognized as a leading preventable cause of illness and premature death.

“We wanted to find out if giving people rewards helps them to quit smoking in the long term,” she states.

“We are now very confident that incentives help people, and pregnant people, to quit smoking better than not offering incentives. The evidence also demonstrates that the effectiveness of incentives lasts even after rewards have stopped.”

The incentives in question include financial rewards such as cash, vouchers, or deposits given as encouragement and a reward for maintaining a smoke-free lifestyle.

Various initiatives implement these incentive schemes, from workplace programs to community organizations.

Long-term success in quitting smoking

The broader research encompassed 48 studies and over 21,900 participants; all the research explored different reward schemes designed to help smokers quit.

The results, even after filtering out the lowest-quality trials, indicated that participants who received rewards were more likely to maintain their smoke-free status six months or more into the trial.

For every 100 smokers who received a financial reward to quit, ten were likely to be successful and remain successful for six months or longer.

This contrasted with only seven successful quitters out of 100 people who didn’t receive financial incentives. The success rate even extended beyond the time when the rewards had ceased.

Extra effective for pregnant women

When it came to pregnant women, the rewards scheme showed even more promising results.

Women who were pregnant and received rewards had a higher likelihood of quitting smoking than those who didn’t.

This was observed both at the end of the pregnancy and post-birth.

For every 100 pregnant women who received financial incentives, 13 were likely to successfully quit smoking for six months or longer. In comparison, only six out of 100 were successful if no financial incentive was given.

Incentive size has little impact on quitting smoking

Interestingly, the amount of reward didn’t seem to make a substantial difference.

The studies showed no noticeable variation between those that offered smaller amounts (less than 100 U.S. dollars) and those that offered larger ones (more than 700 US dollars).

However, the researchers noted that a fair comparison is difficult to make due to cultural differences in the value placed on money, as the studies were conducted in many different countries.

Smoking during pregnancy: A double-edged sword

Highlighting the importance of this study, Professor Linda Bauld, Director of the SPECTRUM Research Consortium, Co-Chair of the Smoking in Pregnancy Challenge Group, and study co-author, states that smoking during pregnancy is one of the leading causes of poor birth outcomes, including stillbirth and miscarriage.

“These findings show that financial incentives during pregnancy can more than double the chances of quitting smoking and that incentives are also effective for preventing women from relapsing to smoking postnatally,” she notes.

Her sentiments are echoed by co-author Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, assistant professor of health policy and promotion from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

He emphasized the reluctance of people to use pharmacological interventions during pregnancy, thereby making alternative strategies such as incentives even more critical.

Quitting smoking with incentives

Looking to the future, research will likely focus more on exploring the differences between trials offering low or high cash incentives and self-incentives, within a variety of smoking populations, especially in low- and middle-income countries where the burden of tobacco use remains high.

This compelling study was carried out collaboratively between UEA and esteemed institutions such as the University of Oxford, University of Edinburgh, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The result? A breath of fresh air in the ongoing struggle against smoking.

The full study was published in the journal Cochrane Review.

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