People are more likely to quit smoking and make other healthy lifestyle choices if offered small financial incentives, researchers have said.The ‘small financial incentive’ they get through not buying a packet of Benson & Hedges isn’t enough?
The charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) said that evidence of the benefit of financial incentives to help people quit was growing and could be “particularly helpful for the poorest most disadvantaged smokers”.
One recent study in Dundee found that smokers in deprived areas who were offered £12.50 per week to quit smoking had a three-month quit rate of more than 30 per cent, compared to the 14 per cent national average.That’s all..? 30%? Doesn't sound like much of a return on the investment to me.
And...what happens to the incentives given to the other 70%? Do they have to give them back?
They'll probably use the £12.50 to buy more fags. That's about enough to get a couple of packs of the less prestigious brands. Best part of a tenner of their outlay will be tax so you could say that the 70% who don't give up will be paying the money back.
ReplyDeleteI'm starting as soon as it looks like it is going forward. I'll tell my doc now so he can add me to the BACS system. Err... I mean add me to the list of those needing help for this addiction I'm trying to overcome. Blasted tobacco companies.
ReplyDeleteI wish that the MSM would cease the practice of uncritically describing organisations such as ASH as charities.
ReplyDeleteStonyground
I would accept this if the £12.50 per person was paid directly from the millions a 'charity' like ASH receives from the taxpayer as Government contributions rather than expecting it to come from another source.
ReplyDeletePenseivat
At the end of three months, do they get another go?
ReplyDelete"...so you could say that the 70% who don't give up will be paying the money back."
ReplyDeleteAh, indeed!
"I'll tell my doc now so he can add me to the BACS system."
:D
"I wish that the MSM would cease the practice of uncritically describing organisations such as ASH as charities."
Me too. Even better: strip them of the right to call themselves such.
We allow the word (and the benefits it carries) to be used too easily.
"At the end of three months, do they get another go?"
Probably!