Offering financial incentives to smokers could help them kick the butt

Researchers suggest that people are more likely to quit smoking and make other healthy lifestyle choices if they offered small financial incentives.

A team from Newcastle University said that a review of evidence revealed that as little as 3 pounds could make people up to 50 percent more likely to change their behavior, the Independent reported.

The research looked at more than 30,000 participants in 16 studies who had been set challenges such as quitting smoking.

The charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) said that evidence of the benefit of financial incentives to help people quit was growing and could be "particularly helpful for the poorest most disadvantaged smokers".

One recent study in Dundee found that smokers in deprived areas who were offered 12.50 pounds per week to quit smoking had a three-month quit rate of more than 30 percent, compared to the 14 percent national average.

Another in Scotland found offering pregnant smokers incentives to quit doubled the number who gave up the habit during their pregnancy.

Newcastle University Research Associate, Dr Emma Giles, said that the team had been "surprised at just how strong the effect was" in the studies they looked at.