Counselling, guaranteed rewards and text messages helped smokers quit.

The review

1. 01

   Who took part

   About 250,000 adults who smoked took part in 312 trials, mostly in the USA and Western Europe. They were aged 18 to 63.

2. 02

   What they did

   Trials compared each kind of extra help, such as counselling or rewards, with no extra help at all. Quit rates were checked at six months or longer, about 10 and a half months on average.

3. 03

   What happened

   About 9 in 100 quit with counselling, guaranteed rewards or text messages, and 6 in 100 without them. Rewards that were not guaranteed did not clearly change how many quit. Tailoring, motivational content and a focus on how to quit gave small gains that are uncertain.

What the review found

1. Helped

   Adults who had counselling quit smoking more often than those who got no quitting support.

   • Rule: With a coach or therapistused

   Pooled analysis of 194 studies with 72,273 people · vs people who got no quitting support · the authors rated their certainty high · ⚠ whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

2. Helped

   Adults who were guaranteed a reward for quitting quit more often than those who got no quitting support.

   • Rule: Get a reward or payment for doing ittested

   Pooled analysis of 19 studies with 8,877 people · vs people who got no quitting support · the authors rated their certainty high · ⚠ whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

3. Helped

   Adults who got support by text message quit more often than those who got no quitting support.

   Pooled analysis of 22 studies with 14,161 people · vs people who got no quitting support · the authors rated their certainty moderate · ⚠ whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

4. No difference

   Adults offered rewards that were not guaranteed, like prize contests, did not quit more often than those with no support.

   • Rule: Get a reward or payment for doing ittested

   Pooled analysis of 10 studies with 6,827 people · vs people who got no quitting support · the authors rated their certainty very low · ⚠ most studies had serious flaws; whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

Source