Recent research that offered four different financial incentives to help smokers to curb the habit has produced some promising results. About 2,500 volunteers from the United States participated in the study conducted by Dr. Scott Halpern and his team at the University of Pennsylvania.
The participants were divided into four groups. The first group each received rewards of $200 for remaining abstinent over a specific period. The success rate for this group was at 15.7 percent.
The second group received the same $200 incentive but the researchers also required participants to make a $150 deposit. They were refunded the deposit after quitting. About 10.2 percent of the participants were able to achieve the goal.
The third group was structured as a collaborative effort. Participants earned $100 per group member once someone quit. About 13.7 percent of the participants were able to achieve the goal.
The fourth group was structured competitively. Groups of participants were required to make a $150 deposit but researchers matched that amount with $450. Payouts depended on the number of participants who quit the vice. About 12.1 percent of the group reached the goal and received incentives.
"We found that the reward-based programs were more effective than deposits overall because more people accepted them in the first place," said Halpern in the study, as published in Medical Express.
At least 90 percent of the volunteers were in the first two programs, but as the researchers stated, "the deposit contracts were twice as effective as rewards, and five times more effective than free information and nicotine replacement therapy, likely because they leveraged people's natural aversion to losing money."
Volunteers who strictly underwent nicotine replacement therapy and counselling – resulting in only 6 percent success rate.
Complete study results were published in the "New England Journal of Medicine" on May 13.
