Paying Pregnant Women Helps Them Quit Smoking

Women are more likely to quit smoking if they are given financial incentives, a new study has shown. The study, done in Scotland, involved more than 600 women. It concluded that women who were paid up to £400 in shopping vouchers were more than twice as likely to quit smoking.Paying women to quit smoking during their pregnancy could help save lives and be cost-effective for the NHS.Smoking while pregnant can do severe harm to both mother and child. It causes around 5,000 miscarriages a year as well as more than 100 stillbirths and 100 infant deaths.The NHS bears a heavy cost treating the after-effects of smoking in pregnancy, in both mothers and babies, is estimated to be as much as £87.5 million.For the study, published in the British Medical Journal, 306 pregnant women in Glasgow were offered a £50 voucher to participate in smoking-cessation programmes. They were then offered further vouchers if they didn’t smoke as their pregnancy advanced. Of the group, 69 women quit smoking, compared to only 26 women who were offered no more than advice to quit smoking. After a year, 15 per cent of women who had received incentives were still not smoking, compared to four per cent of the control group.The authors of the study, from the University of Glasgow and the University of Sterling, said it was substantial evidence of a promising and cost-effective method.The Royal College of Midwives, however, raised objections saying that offering incentives for behaviour change was not ideal. They raised questions about the affordability of the method, saying that it was not sustainable.Smoking during pregnancy is a leading preventable cause of maternal and neonatal ill health and death. Ten per cent of women smoke in the last three months of pregnancy.To contact the writer, email: sonali.raj@gmail.com