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Financial incentives help people quit smoking and stay smoke-free – according to a study conducted by the University of East Anglia (UEA).
Testimonials published today in the Cochrane Library proves that financial incentives have helped people quit smoking and stay in the long run.
The review also found that incentives helped pregnant women quit smoking.
Lead author, Dr. Caitlin Notley, of the Norwich School of Medicine at UEA, said: "Smoking is the leading cause of illness and death in the world. Smokers want to quit, but quitting can be very difficult.
"Quitting smoking can dramatically improve people's health. Rewards, such as cash or vouchers, were used to encourage smokers to quit and reward them for quitting. Such programs have been used in workplaces, clinics and hospitals. in community programs.
"We wanted to know if these plans really worked in the long run, because we thought before that the incentives may only work during the time allotted to them.We found that they help people to not smoke, even after the end of the diet.
"The cost of smoking for the economy is enormous – about £ 13 billion for the UK economy, of which over $ 3 billion for the NHS and social services and £ 7.5 billion for lost productivity." programs could save money.
The team sought to find out if rewards such as cash payments, vouchers or refunds of money deposited by participants had worked. The review summarizes the results of 33 randomized controlled trials involving more than 21,600 people from eight countries. They included ten trials of pregnant smokers, rewarded with smoking cessation vouchers, and staying smoke-free.
All trials in the general population followed participants for at least six months, and those who quit smoking were controlled by testing their breath or body fluids.
Some of the studies did not provide enough data for the team to fully badess their quality. But removing the lowest quality testing of the badysis did not change the results.
Researchers say that the certainty of their results in the general population is high. Their certainty regarding the results in pregnant women is moderate because there have not been so many studies and some were of lesser quality.
Dr. Notley said, "We found that six months or more after the start of the trials, those who were rewarded were about 50% more likely to have quit than those in the control groups.
"Among people not receiving incentives, about 7% had successfully quit smoking for six months or more, compared to about 10.5% of people receiving incentives.
"This is a significant increase when we take into account the huge disadvantages of smoking and the benefits of quitting, and suggests that incentives can be a useful part of a comprehensive approach to helping people quit smoking. Another very important element is that success rates continue beyond the incentives had ended. "
The total amount of financial incentives varied widely between trials ranging from zero (self-deposits) to a range of £ 35 (£ 45) to £ 912 ($ 1185).
Dr. Notley added, "For pregnant women, we also found that women in reward groups were more likely to quit than those in control groups – at the end of pregnancy and after the baby was born, which suggests useful element of a comprehensive approach to helping pregnant women quit smoking.
"Quitting smoking during pregnancy is the best thing women can do to improve their chances of having a healthy pregnancy." Quitting smoking after birth has great benefits for babies, avoiding the risk of pregnancy. exposure to second-hand smoke. "
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The journal was led by the UEA and included researchers from Oxford University and the University of Stirling.
"Incentives to Quit Smoking" is published by the Cochrane Library July 17, 2019.
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