Study • Health · Smoking Cessation

A Randomized, Controlled Trial of Financial Incentives for Smoking Cessation.

Volpp et al. (2009), ‘A randomized, controlled trial of financial incentives for smoking cessation', The New England Journal of Medicine.

Kevin Volpp

Summary by Mark Egan

General Electric wanted its employees to stop smoking. They submitted to a Randomized Control Trial where the treatment group received cash incentives to quit. The control group received no incentives. Quitting for 6 months earned you $250, quitting for 12 months $400. The treatment group had 3 times the success rate of the control (14.7% gave up smoking vs 5%), even after financial incentives were discontinued after 12 months (9.4% vs 3.6%). On the strength of this finding, GE now does this for their 152,000 employees.

Tactics used

L

TACTICS

Lotteries

F

TACTICS

Financial Incentives

E

TACTICS

Education or Information

Behaviors addressed

Smoking Cessation

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