Financial Incentives Promote Smoking Cessation Directly, Not by Increasing Use of Cessation Aids.

Evidence-based interventions for smoking cessation include nicotine replacement therapy, pharmacotherapy, behavioral counseling, and financial incentives. The provision of several interventions simultaneously (i.e., multicomponent interventions) is commonly believed to be more effective than single interventions alone. However, when brought to scale among large populations, intervention bundles may be inefficient if one or more of the components contributes minimally in the causal pathway to successfully quitting. Thus, using data from a five-arm pragmatic cessation trial of 6,006 smokers, we sought to determine whether use of free cessation aids or e-cigarettes mediated the effects of financial incentives for smoking cessation.

National Heart,Lung, and Blood Institute ( NHLBI)