Mobile applications to support smoking cessation
Level of evidence: C
Combining mobile applications with other pharmacological or psychosocial treatments may help in smoking cessation.
Two studies compared mobile applications with pharmacological or psychosocial treatments with the same treatments alone «Houston TK, Chen J, Amante DJ, ym. Effect of Technology-Assisted Brief Abstinence Game on Long-term Smoking Cessation in Individuals Not Yet Ready to Quit: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Intern Med»3, «Carrasco-Hernandez L, Jódar-Sánchez F, Núñez-Benjumea F, ym. A Mobile Health Solution Complementing Psychopharmacology-Supported Smoking Cessation: Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth 20»4. In those studies, mobile applications increased successful abstinence at 6-12 months follow-up. Results may not apply to mobile applications other than those used in these two studies. Two review articles «Whittaker R, McRobbie H, Bullen C, ym. Mobile phone text messaging and app-based interventions for smoking cessation. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2019;10(10):CD006611 »1, «Guo YQ, Chen Y, Dabbs AD, ym. The Effectiveness of Smartphone App-Based Interventions for Assisting Smoking Cessation: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. J Med Internet Res 2023;25:e43242 »2 compared mobile applications to other behavioral interventions or lower-intensity mobile applications and found no effect.
Description of the included studies
| Reference | Study type | Population | Intervention and comparison | Outcomes | Risk of bias |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| «Whittaker R, McRobbie H, Bullen C, ym. Mobile phone text messaging and app-based interventions for smoking cessation. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2019;10(10):CD006611 »1 | SR/MA | Current smokers of any age. | Mobile application vs. lower intensity application or other low intensity support (including printed materials and encouragement to use support services) | Abstinence at six months or longer. Measured either by carbon monoxide test or by survey. | Low risk of bias in 3/5 studies, 1 study had incomplete outcome data, and 1 study unclear allocation concealment. Meta-analysis included heterogenous interventions in both intervention and comparison groups. |
| «Guo YQ, Chen Y, Dabbs AD, ym. The Effectiveness of Smartphone App-Based Interventions for Assisting Smoking Cessation: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. J Med Internet Res 2023;25:e43242 »2 | SR/MA | Current adult smokers | Mobile application vs. any other type of supportive smoking cessation. | 7-day point prevalence abstinence rate or a continuous abstinence rate | Some concerns. Loss to follow-up was often high. Meta-analysis included heterogenous interventions in both intervention and comparison groups. |
| «Houston TK, Chen J, Amante DJ, ym. Effect of Technology-Assisted Brief Abstinence Game on Long-term Smoking Cessation in Individuals Not Yet Ready to Quit: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Intern Med»3 | RCT | Current adult smokers | Take a break mobile application + nicotine replacement therapy vs. nicotine replacement therapy alone | carbon monoxide level-verified smoking cessation at 6-month follow-up | Loss to follow-up ≈25%, otherwise low risk of bias |
| «Carrasco-Hernandez L, Jódar-Sánchez F, Núñez-Benjumea F, ym. A Mobile Health Solution Complementing Psychopharmacology-Supported Smoking Cessation: Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth 20»4 | RCT | Current adult smokers | Mobile application + psychopharmacological treatment vs. psychopharmacological treatment alone | carbon monoxide level-verified smoking cessation at 1-year follow-up | Low risk of bias |
RCT = randomized controlled trial; SR = systematic review; MA = meta-analysis
Additional comments for included studies
| Reference | Comments |
|---|---|
| «Whittaker R, McRobbie H, Bullen C, ym. Mobile phone text messaging and app-based interventions for smoking cessation. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2019;10(10):CD006611 »1 | The risk of bias was mostly low. Heterogenous interventions in the meta-analysis limit the applicability of the results. Additionally, mobile applications were only compared to other behavioral interventions, which limits making conclusions of mobile applications compared to no behavioral intervention. |
| «Guo YQ, Chen Y, Dabbs AD, ym. The Effectiveness of Smartphone App-Based Interventions for Assisting Smoking Cessation: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. J Med Internet Res 2023;25:e43242 »2 | There were some concerns in the risk of bias assessment. Same limitations in applicability of results as in the Cochrane review. |
Results
Outcome 1 Abstinence at 6-12 months.
I = intervention; C = comparison; CI = confidence interval
References
- Whittaker R, McRobbie H, Bullen C, ym. Mobile phone text messaging and app-based interventions for smoking cessation. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2019;10(10):CD006611 «PMID: 31638271»PubMed
- Guo YQ, Chen Y, Dabbs AD, ym. The Effectiveness of Smartphone App-Based Interventions for Assisting Smoking Cessation: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. J Med Internet Res 2023;25:e43242 «PMID: 37079352»PubMed
- Houston TK, Chen J, Amante DJ, ym. Effect of Technology-Assisted Brief Abstinence Game on Long-term Smoking Cessation in Individuals Not Yet Ready to Quit: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Intern Med 2022;182(3):303-312 «PMID: 35072714»PubMed
- Carrasco-Hernandez L, Jódar-Sánchez F, Núñez-Benjumea F, ym. A Mobile Health Solution Complementing Psychopharmacology-Supported Smoking Cessation: Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth 2020;8(4):e17530 «PMID: 32338624»PubMed