What Price Smoking Cessation?

Cash rewards motivated volunteers to quit — but even the well-paid had a long-term failure rate of almost 90%.

Most smoking cessation techniques, be they behavioral or pharmaceutical, yield remarkably poor overall success rates. Might a primal incentive for quitting — a substantial cash reward — make a difference?

Researchers paid 436 subjects for achieving various milestones on the pathway to smoking cessation: US$100 for completing a smoking cessation program, $250 for actually quitting, and $400 for maintaining smoking abstinence for 6 months (certified biochemically). A similar number of controls received information about the same smoking cessation program but didn’t receive money. All subjects and controls were employees of the same multinational company and smoked, on average, one pack daily; most were college educated and earned more than 500…

Reviewing Author

Abigail Zuger, MD

Disclosures

Nothing to disclose

Abigail Zuger, MD

Disclosures

Nothing to disclose

What Price Smoking Cessation?

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Reviewing Author