The impact of including incentives and competition in a workplace smoking cessation program on quit rates

To determine the effectiveness of a multicomponent smoking cessation program supplemented by incentives and team competition.

A quasi-experimental design was employed to compare the effectiveness of three different smoking cessation programs, each assigned to separate worksite.

The study was conducted from 1990 to 1991 at three aerospace industry worksites in California.

All employees who were current, regular tobacco users were eligible to participate in the program offered at their site.

The multicomponent program included a self-help package, telephone counseling, and other elements. The incentive-competition program included the multicomponent program plus cash incentives and team competition for the first 5 months of the program. The traditional program offered a standard smoking cessation program.

Self-reported questionnaires and carbon monoxide tests of tobacco use or abstinence were used over a 12-month period.

The incentive-competition program had an abstinence rate of 41% at 6 months (n = 68), which was significantly better than the multicomponent program (23%, n = 81) or the traditional program (8%, n = 36). At 12 months, the quit rates for the incentive and multicomponent-programs were statistically indistinguishable (37% vs. 30%), but remained higher than the traditional program (11%). Chi-square tests, t-tests, and logistic regression were used to compare smoking abstinence across the three programs.

Offering a multicomponent program with telephone counseling may be just as effective for long-term smoking cessation as such a program plus incentives and competition, and more effective than a traditional program.