Incentives such as monetary rewards, vouchers, and deposit refunds to smokers have proved very beneficial in helping them kick their habits, a new study has revealed. In a study that was conducted under the leadership of the University of East Anglia, it was discovered that rewards played a major role in smoking cessation, as people continued to be successful in quitting long over the period of the incentives.
The research was also concerned with money incentives for expecting women who smoke, and they were the major topic area. Caitlin Notley, who is a professor of addiction sciences at the Norwich Medical School, said, "We now have very strong evidence that offering incentives works and that it is better than no incentives when it comes to getting people and pregnant women to quit smoking."
A research paper titled Incentives for Smoking Cessation has been published in Cochrane Review, and it is derived from a collaborative study between UEA, the University of Oxford, the University of Edinburgh, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Prof. Notley said, "It's not just during the incentive period that rewards work, but it's the lasting effect of rewards that are also shown."
The scientists brought in over 21,900 people among 48 studies to experiment with diverse reward programs that can assist people in their quitting paths. The results found that for every 100 people that the incentives were given to, 10 of them were likely to succeed in quitting in six months or even more, vis-à-vis 7 out of 100 without the monetary incentives. The success rates were persisting when the incentives terminated.
According to the report, about 13 of each 100 pregnant women who got promises of cash rewards were to be among the ones that received cessation in the sixth month and thereafter, versus about 6 of the 100 who would have quit if they had not had the money, so says the report. Prof. Linda Bauld, the director of the Spectrum Research Consortium and co-author of the study, stated, "The evidence for the continuation of the scheme of national financial incentive for pregnant women is also abundant."
Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, who is an assistant professor of health policy and management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, mentioned that: "There is a lot of evidence that suggests that this variant acts on the psychological reward centers of the brain, which are also crucial in nicotine addiction."