Promoting maternal smoking cessation through incentivised partner support

: Smoking during pregnancy remains the number one modifiable cause of poor pregnancy outcomes in the developed world. While some women spontaneously quit when they find out they are pregnant, many do not and most return to smoking within 6 months of having their baby. Interventions which include incentives (e.g., vouchers) have been shown to be not only effective in increasing cessation rates but also cost effective compared to other forms of treatments (e.g., motivational interviewing, NRT). However, even incentives programs have difficulty demonstrating long-term cessation. A review of post-partum relapse prevention strategies suggest programs that involve the pregnant smokers’ partner is necessary to maximise long-term cessation success. While a number of studies have reported on the efficacy (mixed results) of social support (e.g., ‘quit buddies’) in assisting smoking cessation, very few trials have been conducted exploring partner (e.g., husband) support in assisting pregnant smokers to give up. As such, neglecting the role of partner support, and the quality of that support, may be what is missing from smoking in pregnancy incentives programs, and effecting long-term cessation outcomes. Here we describe a protocol for a clinical trial combining quit contingent incentives and partner support. This novel trial will determine whether providing a quit incentive to both the partner and expectant smoking mother is more effective than providing an incentive to the pregnant smoker alone at promoting long-term abstinence. In other words, this study aims to determine whether we can incentivise (“pay”) partners to be more effective quit buddies.