Willingness to pay for smoking cessation treatments

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the use of willingness to pay to value hypothetical new smoking cessation products. Data comes from a baseline survey of participants in a clinical trial of naltrexone combined with nicotine patch for smoking cessation (N=400) conducted in New Haven, CT. We analyze individual willingness to pay for a hypothetical tobacco cessation treatment that is 1) more effective than those currently available, and then 2) more effective and attenuates the weight gain often associated with smoking cessation. A majority of the respondents (280 or 86 %) were willing to pay for the more effective treatment, and of those, 175 (66 %) were willing to pay more if the increased effectiveness was accompanied by the attenuation of the weight gain associated with smoking cessation. This study suggests the validity of using willingness to pay surveys in assessing the value of new smoking cessation products and products with multifaceted improvements. From these data we calculate estimates of the value of a quit. For the population studied this survey suggests a substantial market for more effective smoking cessation treatments.