Team workplace effort to stop smoking work

Team-based workplace smoking cessation incentives were effective in reducing the amount of smoking, researchers in South Korea said. Dr. Sang Haak Lee, a pulmonologist and professor of medicine at St. Paul's Hospital in Seoul and the Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine, and colleagues developed a year-long cessation program that provided financial incentives to a team of 28 healthcare workers at St. Paul's. When the smokers participating in the workplace smoking cessation program remained smoke-free, the team they belonged to received a financial incentive of about $45 for each successful participant at one week and one month. If the smokers in the team remained abstinent for a longer time period, the team was given a collective incentive of about $90 for each success of the participant at three months and six months, respectively. The researchers awarded money to the teams based on team effort -- for how many co-workers the team succeeded to encourage and support the cessation effort -- rather than on individual effort. Abstinence rates at three months was 61 percent, 54 percent at six months and 50 percent at 12 months, Lee said. "In terms of efficacy, the abstinence rates were relatively high for a prolonged period in the team-based approach compared with those previously reported," Lee said in a statement. The findings were presented at the annual American Association for Cancer Research International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research in Los Angeles.