Could Shopping Vouchers Help Pregnant Women Quit Smoking?

First the Government launched a scheme to encourage more new mums to breastfeed with shopping vouchers as a reward and now a similar reward system could bribe women to give up smoking.

The idea has come from new research, published in the British Medical Journal, showing that mums-to-be are more likely to stop smoking if financial rewards are offered as part of a treatment plan.

Because apparently for many the health of their unborn child isn't enough of an incentive.

There are lots of risks associated with smoking in pregnancy – the scariest being the high death rate. In the UK alone, around 5,000 unborn babies and newborns die as a result of mums smoking while pregnant.

Plus, it’s costly for the NHS. Smoking-related issues are thought to cost up to £64 million for problems in mums and up to £23.5 million for babies.

Researchers put 612 pregnant smokers into two groups.

One group was offered up to £400 of financial incentives if they engaged with ‘usual care’ smoking services (which included an appointment with a smoking cessation adviser, four follow-up support calls and free nicotine replacement therapy for 10 weeks) and/or managed to kick the habit while pregnant.

The other group was offered only the care.

Those who were offered the financial incentives were much more likely to quit smoking than the other women. Some 69 women quit smoking from the first group compared to 26 from the second.

A year later, 15 per cent of women who were offered financial incentives remained off cigarettes compared to four per cent who managed to quit from the other group.

“This study provides substantial evidence of a very promising and potentially cost-effective new intervention to add to present health service support,” wrote the researchers.

“The findings can serve as the basis for future research to include other UK centres and other health care systems.”

The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) commented on the research, reaffirming their belief in the importance of encouraging women to stop smoking in pregnancy – and remain non-smokers after the baby’s birth. But they don’t necessarily agree with this particular method of persuasion.

“We have said before that incentivising public health behavior change through monetary reward is not ideal,” says Janet Fyle, professional policy advisor at the RCM.

“Individuals would normally be interested in improving their health and the health of their families if we are able to explain in clear non-judgemental terms what the health consequences are of continued smoking.”

Fyle thinks that alternative ways could work better, “such as pre-conception care for those planning to get pregnant and midwives providing continuous antenatal advice and support to encourage women to quit smoking in pregnancy.”

But the question remains – if you’re hooked on cigs, and willing to pay a fair amount for them anyway, would any financial incentive get you to quit?  

Would shopping vouchers or some other financial incentive tempt you to stop smoking? Let us know in the comments.

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