Single-arm trial of the second version of an acceptance & commitment therapy smartphone application for smoking cessation

Abstract

Background The first randomized trial of a smartphone application (app) for adult smoking cessation (SmartQuit 1.0) revealed key features that predict cessation. These findings guided the revision of this Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT)-based application (SmartQuit 2.0), which was primarily tested to examine participant receptivity, short-term cessation and reduction, and the relationship between program completion, smoking cessation and reduction. Secondarily, outcomes were descriptively compared with the SmartQuit1.0 trial. Method Adult participants (78% female, 25% with high school or less education, 30% unemployed) were recruited into the single-arm pilot trial (N = 99) of SmartQuit 2.0 with a two-month follow-up (85% retention). Results Regarding receptivity, 84% of participants were satisfied with SmartQuit 2.0 (vs. 59% for SmartQuit1.0), 73% would recommend it to a friend (vs. 48% for SmartQuit1.0), 81% found the ACT exercises useful for quitting (vs. 44% for SmartQuit1.0). At the 2-month follow-up, the quit rates were 21% for 7-day point prevalence (vs. 23% for SmartQuit1.0), 11% for 30-day point prevalence (vs. 13% for SmartQuit1.0), and 75% of participants reduced their smoking frequency (vs. 57% for SmartQuit1.0). Among program completers (24% of total sample), the quit rates were 33% for 7-day point prevalence, 28% for 30-day point prevalence, and 88% of participants reduced their smoking frequency. Conclusions The revised app had high user receptivity, modest quit rates, and high smoking reduction rates. Program completion may be key to boosting the app’s effectiveness.

Pragmatic randomised trial of a smartphone app (NRT2Quit) to improve effectiveness of nicotine replacement therapy in a quit attempt by improving medication adherence - results of a prematurely terminated study

“…The cessation rates reported in this study are similar to those found in other research, but biochemical verification of abstinence was rarely conducted in most other trials [8][9][10]. The findings suggesting greater effectiveness of the intervention version of the NRT2Quit app are all the more encouraging as the control app version already included several evidence-based BCTs that were shown to improve cessation, including goal setting and monitoring [39].…”

“…The study also enabled us to make important methodological observations about recruitment and engagement of smokers with smartphone-based support for NRT use. Finally, we evaluated the app in a setting that had higher ecological validity than earlier studies, namely one involving no contact with the researchers at enrolment or incentives for app engagement and surveybased follow-up, some of which have been used in other studies [9,10,14].…”

Pragmatic randomised trial of a smartphone app (NRT2Quit) to improve effectiveness of nicotine replacement therapy in a quit attempt by improving medication adherence - results of a prematurely terminated study

“…The cessation rates reported in this study are similar to those found in other research, but biochemical verification of abstinence was rarely conducted in most other trials (BinDhim, McGeechan, & Trevena, 2018;Bricker et al, 2017;Bricker et al, 2014). The findings suggesting greater effectiveness of the intervention version of the NRT2Quit app are all the more encouraging as the control app version already included several evidence-based BCTs that were shown to improve cessation, including goal setting and monitoring (Lorencatto, West, & Michie, 2012).…”

Clickotine, A Personalized Smartphone App for Smoking Cessation: Initial Evaluation

“…App opens is a standard and important metric for measuring engagement with a digital therapeutic, for smoking cessation [42] or other indications. App opens could be tallied over the course of the entire 8-week study.…”