Financial Incentives Boost Tobacco Abstinence in Underserved Adults

THURSDAY, Oct. 8, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Among medically underserved adults referred for lung cancer screening, the rates of sustained tobacco abstinence are higher with financial incentives versus usual care with or without free pharmacotherapy, according to a study published online Oct. 5 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Joanna L. Hart, M.D., from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and colleagues compared the effectiveness of four strategies for promoting smoking cessation among medically underserved people referred for lung cancer screening. The analysis included 3,220 participants randomly assigned to an ask-advise-refer strategy to smoking cessation services (usual care) with or without free pharmacotherapy or to usual care plus free pharmacotherapy and financial incentives up to $600 contingent on biochemically confirmed smoking cessation with or without a mobile health tool.

The researchers found that sustained tobacco abstinence rates through six months were 4.3 percent with usual care, 5.1 percent with the addition of pharmacotherapy, 8.8 percent with the addition of financial incentives, and 7.2 percent with the addition of a mobile health tool. The adjusted rate of sustained tobacco abstinence was increased by adding financial incentives compared with both usual care (difference, 4.6 percent) and usual care plus free pharmacotherapy (difference, 4.1 percent). However, adding free pharmacotherapy to usual care was not superior to usual care alone (difference, 0.5 percent).

“Finding new approaches that help people successfully stop smoking can have an enormous impact, not only on their health but also on their quality of life,” Hart said in a statement.

One author disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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