Financial Intervention for Smoking Cessation Among Low-Income Smokers

The intervention group will receive four telephone-based financial counselling sessions with a qualified financial counsellor who has been trained to be sensitive to smoking cessation issues. Each financial counselling session will be 1 hour in duration and will be conducted on an approximately weekly basis over 4-weeks following baseline. The sessions will focus on three key areas: budgeting, money management and financial goal setting. This will include personalised expense assessments; education on the relationship between financial strain and smoking; advice on bill tracking and how to deal with debts; discussion of financial goals and targeted advice on how to achieve identified goals; and education on frugal living strategies. All intervention participants will also be provided with a personalised budget, including a “if you didn’t smoke” scenario following their initial session, which will be reviewed and discussed at subsequent sessions. In addition, the intervention group will concurently receive the usual gold practice standard intervention including 10-weeks free Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) and call-back support from Quitline commencing following baseline. Participants will nominate their preferred form of NRT, which will be mailed to them by the research team. Dosage will be determined based on the level of nicotine dependence at baseline as measured using the Heaviness of Smoking Index. In addition, participants will receive one on one telephone-based call-back support from Quitline advisors who will provide advice, support and information on smoking cessation. Standard elements of telephone-based cessation counselling include: negotiating a quit date, monitoring and motivating use of NRT, arranging social support and self-reward for abstinence. The number of Quitline counselling sessions each participant engages in and the duration of contact with Quitline will be recorded for each participant.