The use of financial incentives in promoting smoking cessation

ObjectiveCigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States and world. Despite the availability of numerous therapies for smoking cessation, additional efficacious interventions are greatly needed. We provide a narrative review of published studies evaluating financial incentives for smoking cessation and discuss the parameters important for ensuring the efficacy of incentive interventions for smoking cessation.MethodsPublished studies that evaluated the impact of incentives to promote smoking cessation and included an appropriate control or comparison condition were identified and reviewed.ResultsIncentives are efficacious for promoting smoking abstinence across the general population of smokers as well as substance abusers, adolescents, patients with pulmonary disease, patients with serious mental illness and other challenging subgroups. To develop and implement an effective incentive treatment for smoking, special attention should be paid to biochemical verification of smoking status, incentive magnitude and the schedule of incentive delivery.ConclusionConsistent with the extensive literature showing that incentives are effective in reducing illicit drug use, a large body of evidence supports their effectiveness in reducing smoking. Continued efforts are warranted to further develop and disseminate incentive-based treatments for smoking cessation across clinical settings and populations.

► We review the published studies evaluating financial incentives for smoking cessation.
► Parameters that influence the efficacy of incentive treatments are also discussed.
► Incentives are efficacious for smoking cessation across diverse groups of smokers.
► Biochemical verification, incentive magnitude and schedule can influence efficacy.
► Careful dissemination of incentives for smoking on a large scale is a key next step.