Strange innovations help stop smoking

A new study finds, bribing money smokers or lottery tickets can help them give up this bad habit. This discovery is raising controversy in the UK.

>>>Benefits of quitting

Researchers from the University of Newcastle (UK) conducted a review of the results of 16 projects using cash, vouchers, lottery tickets or other financial benefits to encourage people to "quit" cigarettes and practice more exercise, vaccination or screening for breast or cervical cancer.

They found that smokers who participated in such projects were 2 times more likely to give up their bad habits than those who simply received advice on how to end it. When calculating the results of all projects, financial incentives have increased the rate of behavior change by up to 62%.

Bonusing money helps smokers tend to give up bad habits 2 times higher than normal.(Artwork: Corbis)

Interestingly, there is not much difference in the effect between bonuses with low and high value. According to a research report in PLoS ONE magazine, financial sanctions, in which a person loses a deposit if not changing behavior, is also effective.

Researchers found that the effect began to diminish after the incentives ended. However, some people will eventually return to traditional ways to quit smoking, lose weight, and improve their health.

Those who criticize the allegations, the above experimental projects are using taxpayer money to "bribe" . However, the researcher, Dr. Jean Adams said, the projects only "awarded" instead of "bribery".

Ms. Adams said, although all 16 projects analyzed were conducted in the US, effective financial incentives could help the UK public health system (NHS) save money. For example, it is much cheaper to give a small sum of money to a " quit " person than to give them expensive or paid drugs to cure diseases arising from their bad habits.

NHS is currently testing adoption of financial incentives for smokers, obese people and even lactating women. One of the most controversial of these is to use financial benefits to "lure" postpartum mothers in South Yorkshire and Derbyshire to breastfeed, instead of using formula milk.