Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34306224›Full record

ArticleJournal of smoking cessation2021

Evaluation of Combined Financial Incentives and Deposit Contract Intervention for Smoking Cessation: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Daren R Anderson, Samantha Horn, Dean Karlan, Amanda E Kowalski, Jody L Sindelar, Jonathan Zinman

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of smoking cessation, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Financial Incentives for Substance Abstinence: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2025
    Pooled it
  2. Incentives for smoking cessation.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2025
    Pooled it
  3. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Daren R AndersonDepartment of Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
Samantha HornDepartment of Social and Decision Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Dean KarlanKellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0164-1398
Amanda E KowalskiDepartment of Economics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Jody L SindelarDepartment of Health Policy and Management, Yale School of Public Health, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
Jonathan ZinmanDepartment of Economics, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA.

Funding

Scientific/Technical CoreP2CHD041028 · NICHD · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · PI Sarah A. Burgard · 2017 to 2026
$6.5M
NICHD NIH HHS P2C HD041028
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

introductionWe evaluate whether a combination of financial incentives and deposit contracts improves cessation rates among low- to moderate-income smokers.

methodsWe randomly assigned 311 smokers covered by Medicaid at 12 health clinics in Connecticut to usual care or one of the three treatment arms. Each treatment arm received financial incentives for two months and either (i) nothing further ("incentives only"), (ii) the option to start a deposit contract with incentive earnings after the incentives ended ("commitment"), or (iii) the option to precommit any earned incentives into a deposit contract starting after the incentives ended ("precommitment"). Smoking cessation was confirmed biochemically at two, six, and twelve months.

resultsAt two, six, and twelve months after baseline, our estimated treatment effects on cessation are positive but imprecise, with confidence intervals containing effect sizes estimated by prior studies of financial incentives alone and deposit contracts alone. At two months, the odds ratio for quitting was 1.4 in the incentive-only condition (95% CI: 0.5 to 3.5), 2.0 for incentives followed by commitment (95% CI: 0.6 to 6.1), and 1.9 for incentives and precommitment (95% CI: 0.7 to 5.3).

conclusionsA combined incentive and deposit contract program for Medicaid enrollees, with incentives offering up to $300 for smoking cessation and use of support services, produced a positive but imprecisely estimated effect on biochemically verified cessation relative to usual care and with no detectable difference in cessation rates between the different treatment arms.

Identifiers

PMID34306224
PMCPMC8279199

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.