Health care
British expert suggestion: Coupons for pregnant women when they quit smoking
Smoking in pregnancy harms not only the mother, but also the unborn child
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Britain could soon offer pregnant women financial incentives if they quit smoking during pregnancy. However, women must also prove their abstinence.
About one in ten women in the UK also smoke during their pregnancy, estimates the British health authority NHS. In Germany, it is estimated by the Federal Ministry of Health 13 percent – but the number of unreported cases is significantly higher. This is an alarming figure, because smoking in pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage and premature birth, often leads to a significantly too low birth weight of the newborn and possibly also to an increased risk of cancer in the child.
British health experts therefore want to convince pregnant women to quit smoking, at least for the period of pregnancy. Where the health arguments do not help, financial incentives should now serve as additional motivation. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), an institution of the Ministry of Health, therefore recommends that pregnant women be provided with shopping vouchers if they give up smoking.
Smoking in pregnancy: voucher as an incentive to quit
In the conversation are vouchers with a value of up to 400 pounds, the equivalent of more than 460 euros. Women who do not stay smoke-free throughout pregnancy can also benefit from the offer: there are ten pounds per week. So far, it is only a proposal of the institute, which still needs to be discussed at the political level. However, a NICE survey showed that for every thousand women who are offered the offer, 177 would quit smoking.
“We need to use every means to reduce the number of smokers,” says Paul Crisp, responsible for health guidelines at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence: “This includes education, behavioral support, financial incentives and e-cigarettes if people want to use them.”
Detection by carbon monoxide test
Gynecologists and midwives should advise expectant mothers about the offer at the beginning of their pregnancy. In order to receive the vouchers, women must participate in a recognized non-smoking program and also prove through a regular carbon monoxide test that they have not smoked in the recent past. The vouchers should be valid in supermarkets, for example, but not for goods such as alcohol or cigarettes.
Experts expect the voucher model to be particularly successful because it has been empirically proven that young mothers and women from socially disadvantaged backgrounds smoke particularly frequently during pregnancy. Nicotine consumption accounts for half of the difference in life expectancy between poorer and richer strata, NICE said.
Source: National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) / “Quarks” / Federal Ministry of Health
