Can ‘Quit Smoking’ Contests Help People Kick The Habit?
July 17, 2008 by Liz Lewis
Filed under Addiction, Contests and Giveaways, Misc., Smoking
That’s what the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research, wanted to find out. So they did a systematic review of 17 relevant studies that had taken place in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia.
These studies had used mostly monetary incentives to help encourage participants to quit smoking.
Incentives such as …
- being rewarded with one lottery ticket per day if they tossed their cigarettes down the toilet.
- being offered cash incentives of $10 per month and participation in a monthly worksite lottery.
- being offered cash prizes ranging from $100 to $250, along with certificates of recognition.
Did it work?
Not according review co-auhor Kate Cahill at the Univeristy of Oxford…
“In my view, none of them was effective. One of our main conclusions was that if incentives work at all, they only work while they’re in place; if you revisit those quitters 12 or 24 months down the line, they [smokers offered incentives] were generally no more successful than counterparts not offered incentives.”
I wonder if that’s what the Scottish Health Board is also finding? Last month, they announced a three month quit smoking incentive plan in Dundee. Smokers who signed up and passed a weekly carbon monoxide breath test proving they had not been smoking would be given around $24 a week in the form of a grocery credit.
It will be interesting to see what sort of success rate they have…
(source)
I’ve always felt that whenever contests like this are over, the participants have no reason to continue. Essentially, they’ve never learned how to change their lifestyle for good, only how to compete and win against others. That’s a valuable skill, of course, but not conducive to long-term results when it comes to smoking cessation, weight loss, et cetera.
(Of course, what the heck do I know? *smiles*)
hi Angelique, seems you know more than you think cause the cochrane collaboration (and I) agree with you.
in situations where you are trying to get people to give up smoking etc, the incentives do not offer long lasting results…
In our senior year of college, my best friend was offered $300 by a friend if she could stop smoking until graduation – 3 months away. Not only did she immediately stop smoking, she even ended up declining the payoff after graduation. She was just so grateful to be rid of the habit.
What got me to stop smoking after more than 20 years is that I became so destitute that I didn’t have enough money left in my pocket or bank account to afford another carton. With no prospects to fund the continuation of my addiction I did what had been so illusive til that point. I dropped cigarettes from my budget and although I still go through long bouts of being broke, I effectively have one less monkey on my back. It’s not my recommendation to have to go that route, as it’s fraught with danger of not coming out the other side, but I have been able to afford more Prozac to see me through the rougher spots ;} No, I mean if you’re willing to have that internal dialog with yourself, and be able to reset some priorities and can afford to buy enough nicotine patches to have as a bowl of cereal each morning ,} I mean the way it is with me is if gas prices keep on going up, pretty soon I won’t be able to afford to fart.