Integrating Use of Self-Affirmation Content Into a Mobile App to Promote Quit Attempts With Text-Based Smoking Cessation Intervention Messaging

Overview

Background: Quitting smoking is hard. It is easy to relapse. Smokers may think of temptation to smoke as a threat if they think it suggests that they are unable to meet the challenges of stopping. When people feel such a threat to their sense of self-identity, they may get defensive. They may want to downplay the importance of quitting. This could make them try to quit less. Self-affirmation is a process of focusing on strengths and values. This can offset threats to the self and promote healthier behavior. Objective: To explore people s values, smoking attitudes, and smoking behavior. Eligibility: People ages 18 and older who smoke Design: The study takes place entirely on a mobile device. Participants will give their age, gender, data about their smoking habits, and desired quit date. Then they will get different texts about quitting. Participants will answer follow-up surveys 1 and 3 months later. ...

Quitting smoking is challenging and relapse is likely. Smokers may perceive temptation to smoke as threatening if they think it suggests that they are unable to meet the challenges of cessation. When individuals experience such a threat to their sense of self-identity (e.g., to their sense that they have integrity and/ or competence), they often respond defensively. Individuals have a tendency to react defensively to information that informs them that their behavior increases risk for a particular disease or negative health consequences. Self-affirmation a process through which individuals focus on their strengths and values can offset threats to the self and promote healthier behaviors, including smoking cessation. To the extent that relapse or difficulty quitting is perceived as a threat to self-identity, when individuals are presented with the opportunity to self-affirm they may perceive failure as less threatening, mitigating the motivation to downplay the importance of quitting. Preliminary evidence suggests that self-affirmation can be feasibly incorporated into an existing smoking cessation text message-based intervention, and may bolster cessation rates among users motivated to quit smoking. Here, we propose to extend that research by examining whether the addition of self-affirmation text messages to a smoking cessation app (Smoke Free United Kingdom (UK) promotes smoking cessation, compared to standard of care (i.e., existing app content only). Importantly, self-affirmation material will be incorporated into the current app and will not change the goals or nature of the original texting program. We predict that the individuals in the self-affirmation condition will be more likely to report being smoke-free at the 1-month and 3-month follow-ups.