Smokers who are paid to quit succeed far more often than those who get no cash reward, according to a new study that provides some of the strongest evidence yet that financial incentives can help change such behavior.

The study, one of the largest of its kind, comes at a time when more employers, schools and other institutions are paying people to do everything from lose weight to improve their grades. The latest findings were published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine.

Smoking is one of the nation's biggest causes of premature death. It is believed to kill about 480,000 Americans a year. About 20% of all U.S. adults smoke, which is down from about 25% 10 years ago. Although most smokers say they want to quit, research in recent years indicates that less than 3% of those who try every year succeed in doing so permanently.

For the new study, researchers, led by a team from the University of Pennsylvania, tracked 878 General Electric Co. employees from around the country for a year and a half in 2005 and 2006. Participants, who smoked an average of one pack of cigarettes a day, were divided into two groups of roughly equal size. All received information about smoking-cessation programs.

Members of one group also got as much as $750 in cash, with the payments spread out over time to encourage longer-term abstinence. Those participants got $100 for completing a smoking-cessation program, $250 if they stopped smoking within six months after enrolling in the study, and $400 for continuing to abstain from smoking for an additional six months.

All participants were contacted three months after they enrolled in the study and periodically after that. Those who said they had stopped smoking at any point during the study were asked to submit saliva or urine samples for testing so that their claims could be verified.

About 14.7% of the group offered financial incentives said they had stopped smoking within the first year of the study, compared with 5% of the other group. At the time of their last interview for the 18-month study, 9.4% of the paid group was still abstaining compared with 3.6% of those who got no money.

Smoking experts say previous studies have found little clear evidence that such financial incentives help in getting smokers to quit, although most have involved far fewer patients and much smaller incentives.

The study 'shows that incentives work,' said Steven Schroeder, director of the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center at the University of California, San Francisco, who wasn't involved with the research. Helen Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health, a professional organization, said the findings give employers solid evidence that such incentives can help them save money on health-care costs for employees. 'You'd prefer not to pay them, but it's worth it,' she said.

一項(xiàng)最新研究顯示，拿了錢(qián)戒煙的成功率要遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超過(guò)那些沒(méi)錢(qián)拿的，這是財(cái)務(wù)激勵(lì)有助于改變吸煙行為的一項(xiàng)最有力的證據(jù)。

在同類(lèi)項(xiàng)目中規(guī)模最大的這項(xiàng)研究推出之際，正值當(dāng)今越來(lái)越多的雇主、學(xué)校和其他機(jī)構(gòu)花錢(qián)鼓勵(lì)人們做從減肥到提高分?jǐn)?shù)的各種事情。這項(xiàng)最新研究發(fā)表在上周的《新英格蘭醫(yī)學(xué)雜志》(New England Journal of Medicine)上。

吸煙是美國(guó)人最大的早逝原因之一。據(jù)稱美國(guó)每年大約有48萬(wàn)人死于吸煙。目前美國(guó)成年人大約有五分之一吸煙，這個(gè)比例低于十年前的四分之一。盡管大多數(shù)吸煙者表示自己愿意戒煙，但近年來(lái)的研究顯示，每年都嘗試戒煙的人只有不到3%完全戒除了煙癮。

從2005年到2006年的一年半時(shí)間，賓夕法尼亞州大學(xué)的一個(gè)研究小組對(duì)通用電氣(General Electric Co.)分布在美國(guó)各地的878名員工進(jìn)行了此項(xiàng)研究。這些研究對(duì)象平均每天吸一包煙，他們被分成人數(shù)相當(dāng)?shù)膬蓚�(gè)小組。所有人都被告知了這個(gè)戒煙項(xiàng)目的有關(guān)信息。

其中一個(gè)小組的研究對(duì)象可以拿到總計(jì)750美元的現(xiàn)金；這筆錢(qián)分步發(fā)放，以鼓勵(lì)研究對(duì)象更長(zhǎng)期的遠(yuǎn)離煙癮。這些研究對(duì)象完成一個(gè)戒煙項(xiàng)目后就可以拿到100美元，登記參加研究之后六個(gè)月內(nèi)不再?gòu)?fù)吸還可以得到250美元，再堅(jiān)持六個(gè)月不 煙就能收獲400美元的獎(jiǎng)金。

在登記參加研究之后三個(gè)月，研究人員聯(lián)絡(luò)了所有研究對(duì)象，并在此后定期回訪。那些表示研究過(guò)程中一直沒(méi)吸煙的人會(huì)被要求提交唾液或尿液樣本用于測(cè)試，以便驗(yàn)證他們自述是否屬實(shí)。

提供獎(jiǎng)金的小組中，大約有14.7%的人說(shuō)他們?cè)谘芯科陂g的頭一年內(nèi)沒(méi)有吸煙，這個(gè)比例高于另外一組的5%。在為期18個(gè)月的此次研究最后一次回訪中，付費(fèi)戒煙小組有9.4%人仍然沒(méi)有吸煙，而另外一個(gè)小組這個(gè)比例僅有3.6%。

戒煙問(wèn)題專家表示，此前的研究沒(méi)有發(fā)現(xiàn)明顯證據(jù)表明此類(lèi)財(cái)務(wù)激勵(lì)有助于幫助吸煙者戒煙，不過(guò)，大多數(shù)此類(lèi)研究的參加人數(shù)和獎(jiǎng)金額都要少的多。

加州大學(xué)舊金山分校的戒煙領(lǐng)導(dǎo)中心(Smoking Cessation Leadership Center)主任施羅德(Steven Schroeder)說(shuō)，這項(xiàng)研究顯示了激勵(lì)能發(fā)揮作用。他沒(méi)有參與這項(xiàng)研究。美國(guó)企業(yè)員工健康組織(National Business Group on Health)主席達(dá)林(Helen Darling)表示，研究結(jié)果為雇主們提供了有力證據(jù)，表明此類(lèi)激勵(lì)能幫助它們減少對(duì)員工的醫(yī)療成本。她說(shuō)，你當(dāng)然更希望不付錢(qián)，但這么做值得。