McMeekin, Nicola and Sinclair, Lesley and Robinson-Smith, Lyn and Mitchell, Alex and Bauld, Linda and Tappin, David M and Boyd, Kathleen A (2023) Financial incentives for quitting smoking in pregnancy: are they cost-effective? Addiction, 118, (8), pp. 1445-1456. doi: 10.1111/add.16176.
External website: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.16...
AIMS: To evaluate whether adding financial incentives to usual care is cost-effective in encouraging pregnant women to quit tobacco smoking, compared with usual care alone.
DESIGN: Cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) and cost-utility analysis (CUA) from a health-care provider's perspective, embedded in the Smoking Cessation in Pregnancy Incentives Trial (CPIT III). Long-term analyses were conducted from the same perspective, using an existing Markov model over a life-time horizon.
SETTING: Seven maternity smoking cessation sites in Scotland, England and Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom. In the short-term analysis, CPIT III participants were assessed: women 16 years or older, self-reporting as smokers, fewer than 24 weeks pregnant and English-speaking (n = 944). The same population was used for the life-time analysis, plus their infants.
MEASUREMENTS: Costs included financial incentive vouchers and postage, cessation support and nicotine replacement therapy and neonatal stays. The outcome measure was a biochemically verified quit rate for the CEA and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) for CUA. Costs are presented in 2020 GBP sterling (£). Data for the life-time analysis came from the trial and were combined with data from published literature embedded in the model, reporting incremental cost per quitter and QALY. A 3.5% discount rate was applied.
FINDINGS: The short-term incremental cost per quitter was £4400 and cost per QALY was £150 000. Results of sensitivity analyses confirmed these results. The long-term analysis combined costs and outcomes for mother and infants; results showed a cost saving of £37 [95% confidence interval (CI]) = £35-106] and increase in QALYs of 0.171 (95% CI = 0.124-0.229). These findings indicate that, over a life-time, financial incentives are cost-saving and improve health outcomes.
CONCLUSIONS: In the United Kingdom, offering up to £400 financial incentives, in addition to usual care, to support pregnant women to stop smoking appears to be highly cost-effective over a life-time for mother and infants.
E Concepts in biomedical areas > Pregnancy
HJ Treatment or recovery method > Substance disorder treatment method > Cessation of tobacco use
HJ Treatment or recovery method > Treatment outcome
L Social psychology and related concepts > Participation incentive / reward (contingency)
T Demographic characteristics > Pregnant woman
VA Geographic area > Europe > United Kingdom
VA Geographic area > Europe > Northern Ireland
Repository Staff Only: item control page