Paying Pregnant Women to Stop Smoking Pays Off

Wavebreak Media(ATLANTA) — Most women understand the perils of smoking while pregnant yet many women continue to light up anyway, which can affect their health and the well-being of their fetus.

The problem is more pervasive than one might imagine. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that one out of 10 pregnant women still smokes within the last three months of pregnancy.

Smoking cessation programs directed at pregnant women have had some degree of success but a research team of scientists from the U.K. says that an especially effective approach is to bribe the women with shopping vouchers.

In their study of more than 600 pregnant smokers, one group received the equivalent of $600 worth of vouchers, provided they started cessation programs and/or stopped smoking. The other group signed up for programs and other therapies but weren’t given vouchers.

Ultimately, 23 percent of the voucher group quit right away and 15 percent were still off cigarettes a year later. The control group was not as successful with nine percent having stopped smoking and just four percent staying smoke-free 12 months later.

Ethical concerns aside, the researchers believe the cash incentive program should at least be considered as “an important preventive health care intervention strategy.”

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