By SHELLY LIU
Shopping vouchers have been found to be the best way to help pregnant women stop smoking, more than twice as effective as traditional services.
Giving shopping vouchers as a financial incentives was found to be effective in helping one in five pregnant women stop smoking, research from Cambridge University and Kings College London found.
Published in the Society for the Study of Addiction to Alcohol and other Drugs' journal Addiction, the study was carried out in antenatal clinics in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, UK, an area of high social deprivation.
Six months after they had given birth, 10 per cent of the women in this study who had been given vouchers as incentives were still not smoking. This compared to less than 1 per cent the previous year, when vouchers were not used.
In Australia, more than one in 10 women smoke through some or all of their pregnancy.
Cancer Council Victoria's online resource Tobacco in Australia revealed in 2010 that 11.7 per cent of pregnant Australian women smoked, with 11.7 per cent admitting they smoked after they knew they were pregnant.
Smoking during pregnancy is strongly associated with socioeconomic disadvantage and is particularly prevalent in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations, according to Tobacco in Australia.
GP and tobacco treatment specialist Dr Gillian Gould, who runs a Quit Clinic and is doing a PhD on how to help indigenous communities quit smoking, has said that tobacco smoking was "the most important reversible risk factor for maternal and infant health for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples".
She said Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women often suffered social and economic disadvantage and required more public support to quit cigarettes.
“There is a lack of access to services to help Aboriginal women quit smoking. I'm trying to train doctors to offer more effective treatments, more evidence-based treatments to women," she said.
However, Dr Gould said the use of financial incentives could be problematic. Before it could be used effectively in an Australian context, it needed to be examined in a broader way.
Cambridge University Behaviour and Health Research Unit Professor Theresa Marteau, who led the shopping voucher study, said quitters needed support.
“We all know of the dangers of smoking, particularly during pregnancy, but quitting can be extremely difficult. Offering financial incentives clearly works for some women,” she said.
A Tobacco in Australia examination of various studies on the impact of financial incentives on quitting, found that early success tapered off "once incentives are no longer offered".
Dr Gould also said financial incentive to quit smoking could encourage people to try to sort the system.
However, Prof Marteau said in the university's study, very few women gamed the system, and "a significant number stopp[ed] smoking at least for the duration of their pregnancy”.
In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on May 28, financial incentives were found to triple quit rates over other means for sustained periods. One trial at General Electric, which offered employees incentives worth $750 to quit, was so successful the company introduced an adapted program across it employees.