Does impulsiveness moderate response to financial incentives for smoking cessation among pregnant and newly postpartum women?

We examined whether impulsiveness moderates response to financial incentives for cessation among pregnant smokers. Participants were randomized to receive financial incentives delivered contingent on smoking abstinence or to a control condition wherein incentives were delivered independent of smoking status. The study was conducted in two steps: First, we examined associations between baseline impulsiveness and abstinence at late pregnancy and 24-weeks-postpartum as part of a planned prospective study of this topic using data from a recently completed, randomized controlled clinical trial (N = 118). Next, to increase statistical power, we conducted a second analysis collapsing results across that recent trial and two prior trials involving the same study conditions (N = 236). Impulsivity was assessed using a delay discounting (DD) of hypothetical monetary rewards task in all three trials and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS) in the most recent trial. Neither DD nor BIS predicted smoking status in the single or combined trials. Receiving abstinence-contingent incentives, lower baseline smoking rate, and a history of quit attempts prepregnancy predicted greater odds of antepartum abstinence across the single and combined trials. No variable predicted postpartum abstinence across the single and combined trials, although a history of antepartum quit attempts and receiving abstinence-contingent incentives predicted in the single and combined trials, respectively. Overall, this study provides no evidence that impulsiveness as assessed by DD or BIS moderates response to this treatment approach while underscoring a substantial association of smoking rate and prior quit attempts with abstinence across the contingent incentives and control treatment conditions.