Is paying smokers to stop money well spent?

Author and presenter:
Linda Bauld
Professor of Social Policy, University of Bath and UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies

Abstract
Financial incentives for behaviour change have been used in a number of areas of public health and in recent years their popularity has increased. In tobacco control, good evidence exists regarding the efficacy of financial incentives for smoking cessation in pregnancy, with some emerging
evidence of the benefits of this approach for other groups of smokers. This presentation will outline findings from a number of recent reviews of the literature on financial incentives for smoking cessation. It will examine the role of different types of incentives in encouraging short and longer term abstinence. Examples of incentive schemes in the UK will be provided along with emerging findings regarding the
implementation of, and outcomes from, these schemes. Finally the presentation will explore the issue of unintended consequences arising from the provision of incentives and ask: should incentives
form part of national policy to support smokers to quit?

Source of funding: UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies, Smokefree South West

Declaration of interest: none

About the presenter

Linda Bauld is Professor of Social Policy at the University of Bath.
Her research involves the evaluation of complex interventions to improve
health, most notably smoking cessation and tobacco control interventions.
She conducted the first study of NHS stop smoking services when they
were established in 1999 and since then her research, evidence reviews
and policy work have continued to inform their development. Linda is
a member of a number of public health advisory and funding committees
in England and Scotland and since 1998 has served as the Department
of Health’s scientific adviser on tobacco control.