BACKGROUND: Tobacco use has posed a tremendous public health problem for China. In order to provide smokers more convenient cessation services, an individual-tailored smartphone smoking cessation application-“Help You Quit” was developed based on Behavior Change Wheel (BCW) and Stage of Change Model. This study aims to assess the efficacy of the APP through a randomized controlled trial (RCT).
METHODS: Current smokers who are motivated to quit within 1 month were recruited online and assigned to the intervention group (receiving the APP and a self-help smoking cessation manual) and control group (receiving a self-help smoking cessation manual only) randomly. A two-arm, single-blind, parallel-group RCT was used in this study. Participants were followed up after enrollment through online questionnaires or by phone call. The primary outcome is self-reported 6-month continuous abstinence. Additionally, a 7-day point-in-time cessation rate was evaluated. Person was used to analyze the difference between the intervention group and control group for the 6-month continuous abstinence, and a multi-logistic regression was used to explore the factors associated with it. Intent-to-treat analysis was used in this study.
RESULTS: A total of 1236 smokers attended this study, of which 618 were in the intervention group and 618 were in the control group. The 6-month follow-up rate was 88.2%. Using intent-to-treat analysis, 101 smokers in the intervention group (16.34%) kept quitting for six months, while 76(12.30%) in the control group (P<0.05). The 7-day point-in-time cessation rate of the intervention group was 27.83%, which was also higher than that in the control group (19.74%) (P<0.001). The frequency of app use was positively related to 6-month sustained smoking cessation (RR=9.041, 95%CI: 4.963-16.470).
CONCLUSIONS: “Help You Quit” could help smokers quit smoking. It could be a supplement to the current approach of smoking cessation services.