Financial incentives may be effective for smoking cessation, study finds

Paying smokers cash to kick the habit may be more effective than cessation advice alone, a new study suggests.

Researchers in Switzerland offered about 800 low-income smokers pamphlets and online smoking cessation guides. About 400 participants were eligible to receive as much as $1,650 if they passed a series of six lab tests that verified they stopped smoking. The participants received gradually increasing sums of money for each cessation test they passed.

After six months, 36 percent of participants who received cash and about 6 percent of the control group had quit smoking. After one year, about 10 percent of those who received cash and 4 percent of the control group remained abstinent.

"Money compensated for the loss of a valued activity and increased both the likelihood of making a quit attempt and the likelihood of succeeding when trying to quit," lead study author Jean-Francois Etter told Reuters.

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