Smartphone App May Help People Identify Smoking Triggers

TUESDAY, April 18, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- A stop-smoking mobile app that senses where and when one might be triggered to smoke could help people quit, according to a study published online April 14 in Nicotine & Tobacco Research.

Felix Naughton, Ph.D., from University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom, and colleagues evaluated the effect of Quit Sense, a theory-guided Just-In-Time Adaptive Intervention smartphone app, to support quitting. The analysis included 209 individuals willing to quit who were randomly assigned to "usual care" (text message referral to NHS SmokeFree website) or "usual care" plus a text message invitation to install Quit Sense.

The researchers found that among Quit Sense participants, 75 percent installed the app and set a quit date, and of those, 51 percent engaged for more than one week. The six-month biochemically verified sustained abstinence rate was higher among Quit Sense participants (11.5 percent versus 2.9 percent for usual care; adjusted odds ratio, 4.57).

“Quit Sense is an artificial intelligence smartphone app that learns about the times, locations, and triggers of previous smoking events to decide when and what messages to display to the users to help them manage urges to smoke in real time," a coauthor said in a statement.

Two authors disclosed financial ties to a smoking cessation app unrelated to this project.

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