Cargando…

Who Uses Smoking Cessation Apps? A Feasibility Study Across Three Countries via Smartphones

BACKGROUND: Smartphone use is growing worldwide. While hundreds of smoking cessation apps are currently available in the app stores, there is no information about who uses them. Smartphones also offer potential as a research tool, but this has not previously been explored. OBJECTIVE: This study aims...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: BinDhim, Nasser F, McGeechan, Kevin, Trevena, Lyndal
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications Inc. 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4114511/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25098439
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/mhealth.2841
_version_ 1782328443412676608
author BinDhim, Nasser F
McGeechan, Kevin
Trevena, Lyndal
author_facet BinDhim, Nasser F
McGeechan, Kevin
Trevena, Lyndal
author_sort BinDhim, Nasser F
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Smartphone use is growing worldwide. While hundreds of smoking cessation apps are currently available in the app stores, there is no information about who uses them. Smartphones also offer potential as a research tool, but this has not previously been explored. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to measure and compare the uptake of a smoking cessation app over one year in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It also assesses the feasibility of conducting research via an app, describing respondents’ characteristics (demographics, smoking status, and other health related app use), and examining differences across countries. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional exploratory study of adults 18 years and older, passively recruited over one year in 2012, who downloaded this study app (Quit Advisor) via the two largest app stores (Apple and Android). RESULTS: The total number of app downloads after one year was 1751, 72.98% (1278/1751) of them were Apple operation system users. Of these 1751 participants, 47.68% (835/1751) were from the United States, 29.18% (511/1751) were from the United Kingdom, and 16.68% (292/1751) were from Australia. There were 602 participants, 36.75% (602/1638) that completed a questionnaire within the app. Of these 602 participants, 58.8% (354/602) were female and the mean age was 32 years. There were no significant differences between countries in terms of age, operation system used, number of quitting attempts, and language spoken at home. However, there were significant differences between countries in terms of gender and stage of change. There were 77.2% (465/602) of the respondents that were ready to quit in the next 30 days and the majority of these had never sought professional help (eg, “Quitline”). More than half had downloaded smoking cessation apps in the past and of these, three-quarters had made quitting attempts (lasted at least 24 hours) using an app before. Respondents who had attempted to quit three times or more in the previous year were more likely to have tried smoking cessation apps (OR 3.3, 95% CI 2.1-5.2). There were 50.2% (302/602) of the respondents that had used other health related apps before. Of these, 89.4% (270/302) were using health related apps at least once a week, but 77.5% (234/302) never checked the credibility of the health app publishers before downloading. CONCLUSIONS: A smartphone app was able to reach smokers across three countries that were not seeking professional help, but were ready to quit within the next 30 days. Respondents were relatively young and almost demographically similar across all three countries. They also frequently used other health related apps, mostly without checking the credibility of their publishers.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4114511
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2014
publisher JMIR Publications Inc.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-41145112014-08-04 Who Uses Smoking Cessation Apps? A Feasibility Study Across Three Countries via Smartphones BinDhim, Nasser F McGeechan, Kevin Trevena, Lyndal JMIR Mhealth Uhealth Original Paper BACKGROUND: Smartphone use is growing worldwide. While hundreds of smoking cessation apps are currently available in the app stores, there is no information about who uses them. Smartphones also offer potential as a research tool, but this has not previously been explored. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to measure and compare the uptake of a smoking cessation app over one year in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It also assesses the feasibility of conducting research via an app, describing respondents’ characteristics (demographics, smoking status, and other health related app use), and examining differences across countries. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional exploratory study of adults 18 years and older, passively recruited over one year in 2012, who downloaded this study app (Quit Advisor) via the two largest app stores (Apple and Android). RESULTS: The total number of app downloads after one year was 1751, 72.98% (1278/1751) of them were Apple operation system users. Of these 1751 participants, 47.68% (835/1751) were from the United States, 29.18% (511/1751) were from the United Kingdom, and 16.68% (292/1751) were from Australia. There were 602 participants, 36.75% (602/1638) that completed a questionnaire within the app. Of these 602 participants, 58.8% (354/602) were female and the mean age was 32 years. There were no significant differences between countries in terms of age, operation system used, number of quitting attempts, and language spoken at home. However, there were significant differences between countries in terms of gender and stage of change. There were 77.2% (465/602) of the respondents that were ready to quit in the next 30 days and the majority of these had never sought professional help (eg, “Quitline”). More than half had downloaded smoking cessation apps in the past and of these, three-quarters had made quitting attempts (lasted at least 24 hours) using an app before. Respondents who had attempted to quit three times or more in the previous year were more likely to have tried smoking cessation apps (OR 3.3, 95% CI 2.1-5.2). There were 50.2% (302/602) of the respondents that had used other health related apps before. Of these, 89.4% (270/302) were using health related apps at least once a week, but 77.5% (234/302) never checked the credibility of the health app publishers before downloading. CONCLUSIONS: A smartphone app was able to reach smokers across three countries that were not seeking professional help, but were ready to quit within the next 30 days. Respondents were relatively young and almost demographically similar across all three countries. They also frequently used other health related apps, mostly without checking the credibility of their publishers. JMIR Publications Inc. 2014-02-06 /pmc/articles/PMC4114511/ /pubmed/25098439 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/mhealth.2841 Text en ©Nasser F BinDhim, Kevin McGeechan, Lyndal Trevena. Originally published in JMIR mHealth and uHealth (http://mhealth.jmir.org), 06.02.2014. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR mHealth and uHealth, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://mhealth.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Original Paper
BinDhim, Nasser F
McGeechan, Kevin
Trevena, Lyndal
Who Uses Smoking Cessation Apps? A Feasibility Study Across Three Countries via Smartphones
title Who Uses Smoking Cessation Apps? A Feasibility Study Across Three Countries via Smartphones
title_full Who Uses Smoking Cessation Apps? A Feasibility Study Across Three Countries via Smartphones
title_fullStr Who Uses Smoking Cessation Apps? A Feasibility Study Across Three Countries via Smartphones
title_full_unstemmed Who Uses Smoking Cessation Apps? A Feasibility Study Across Three Countries via Smartphones
title_short Who Uses Smoking Cessation Apps? A Feasibility Study Across Three Countries via Smartphones
title_sort who uses smoking cessation apps? a feasibility study across three countries via smartphones
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4114511/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25098439
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/mhealth.2841
work_keys_str_mv AT bindhimnasserf whousessmokingcessationappsafeasibilitystudyacrossthreecountriesviasmartphones
AT mcgeechankevin whousessmokingcessationappsafeasibilitystudyacrossthreecountriesviasmartphones
AT trevenalyndal whousessmokingcessationappsafeasibilitystudyacrossthreecountriesviasmartphones