Cohort profile for the Loma Linda University Health BREATHE programme: a model to study continuously incentivised employee smoking cessation

PURPOSE: The purpose of the Loma Linda University Health (LLUH) BREATHE cohort is to test the efficacy of a novel method of continuously incentivising participation in workplace smoking cessation on participation, long-term abstinence, health outcomes, healthcare costs and healthcare utilisation. PARTICIPANTS: In 2014, LLUH—a US academic medical centre and university—incentivised participation in a workplace smoking cessation programme (LLUH BREATHE) by lowering health plan costs. Specifically, LLUH introduced a Wholeness Health Plan (WHP) option that, for the smokers, continuously incentivises participation in nicotine screening and the LLUH BREATHE smoking cessation programme by offering an ‘opt-in wellness discount’ that consisted of 50%–53% lower out of pocket health plan costs (ie, monthly employee premiums, copayments). This novel ‘continuously incentivised’ model lowers annual health plan costs for smokers who, on an annual basis, attempt or maintain cessation from tobacco use. The annual WHP cost savings for smokers far exceed the value of short-term incentives that have been tested in workplace cessation trials to date. This ongoing health plan option offered to over 16 000 employees has created an open, dynamic LLUH BREATHE cohort of current and former smokers (n=1092). FINDINGS TO DATE: Our profile of the LLUH BREATHE cohort indicates that after 5 years of follow-up in a prospective cohort study (2014–2019), continuously incentivised smoking cessation produced a 74% participation (95% CI (71% to 77%)) in employer-sponsored smoking cessation attempts that were occurring less than a year after the incentive was offered. The cohort can be purposed to examine the effect of continuously incentivised cessation on cessation outcomes, health plan utilisation/costs, use of electronic nicotine delivery systems, and COVID-19 outcomes.