Promising money to smokers to give up smoking is a promising approach, according to a clinical study conducted in the United States in disadvantaged socio-economic settings, where smoking remains significantly higher than in the rest of the world. population.
MONEY TO QUIT SMOKING! AND WHY NOT ?
Despite the sharp drop in the number of smokers in recent years in the United States, tobacco remains the leading cause of preventable death in the country and affects mostly the poor and minorities, according to the report published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Internal Medicine.
Researchers at the Boston Medical Center (BMC) offered a program to 352 participants over the age of 18, 54% of whom were women, 56% blacks and 11,4% Hispanics who smoke at least ten cigarettes a day.
Those who failed in the first six months were given a second chance: they were able to pocket $ 250 if they quit smoking within the next six months.
Saliva and urine tests found that nearly 10% of financially baited participants no longer smoked after six months and 12% a year later. Against respectively less than 1% and 2% in the other group
A PROGRAM THAT EVEN HAS POSITIVE RESULTS
« These results show how a program combining several approaches, including a financial incentive, can be effective against smoking.", Relieves Karen Lasser, a physician at the Boston Medical Center and an assistant professor of medicine at Boston University. This study was funded by the American Cancer Society.
This program has had good results especially among older smokers, women and blacks. " The promise of getting money has probably been a major motivation for this population to stop smoking But the study was unable to quantify the effect as participants also benefited from substitution treatment and psychological help, Dr. Lasser explained.
The effectiveness of this approach has already been demonstrated in Scotland, according to a study published in early 2015 in the British medical journal BMJ: 23% of women who received compensation had quit smoking, against only 9% of those without financial encouragement.
In France, a two-year study was launched in April 2016 to encourage pregnant women to stop smoking: sixteen maternity hospitals offer an average of 300 euros to volunteers so that they no longer smoke during their pregnancy. Some 20% of pregnant women smoke in France.
Source : Ledauphine.com - AFP
