Can Financial Incentives Help People Quit Smoking? Study Sheds Light - Video

Rewards and financial incentives are successful methods to help people quit smoking, according to a new Cochrane review. For the first time, the researchers also found “high-certainty evidence” that this intervention works for pregnant people as well.

The latest review included 47 mixed-population studies including 14 new to this review, with just under 22,000 participants. The researchers again found “high-certainty evidence” that financial incentives improve smoking cessation rates at long-term follow-up, even after the incentives are withdrawn.

Separately, the researchers looked at 13 studies from the U.S., United Kingdom and France, with 3,942 pregnant people participating. For every 100 pregnant persons who received financial incentives, 13 were likely to successfully quit smoking at six months or longer, compared to six in 100 who did not receive financial incentives.

The financial amount, given in cash or vouchers, varied widely among the studies examined, from zero (self-deposits returned to the smokers who quit) to between $45 and $1,185. The value of the incentive was not found to be related to the quit rate. “We did not have enough evidence to find out if offering different value rewards had an impact on smoking cessation,” the paper states.

“Smoking is the leading preventable cause of ill health and early death worldwide, and quitting smoking is vitally important to help people live in good health for longer,” says lead author Caitlin Notley, professor of addiction sciences at UEA’s Norwich Medical School. “We are now very confident that incentives help people, and pregnant people too, to quit smoking better than not offering incentives.”

Reference: Notley C, Gentry S, Livingstone-Banks J, Bauld L, Perera R, Conde M, Hartmann-Boyce J. Incentives for smoking cessation. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2025, Issue 1. Art. No.: CD004307. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD004307.pub7. Accessed 13 January 2025.