{"title":"Effectiveness of a Digital Peer-Supported App Intervention in Promoting Smoking Cessations: Nonrandomized Controlled Trial.","authors":"Shota Yoshihara, Kayoko Takahashi, Chiaki Uemura, Shin Murakami, Daichi Harada, Hiroshi Yamato","doi":"10.2196/68638","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Smoking cessation has become a global priority, with peer support interventions shown to improve abstinence rates. However, no studies have examined the effectiveness of a group-based digital peer-supported app combined with nicotine gum for smoking cessation among working populations.</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>This study aimed to assess whether adding a digital peer-supported app to standard nicotine gums improves 12-week smoking abstinence rates among current working smokers in employment-based settings.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A nonrandomized comparison trial was conducted with current working smokers in Japan. Eligible participants smoked at least 1 cigarette per day, owned a smartphone (iOS or Android), and were enrolled in their company's health insurance program. Participants were self-selected into one of the two intervention groups (digital peer-supported app + nicotine gums) or a control group (nicotine gums only). The digital peer-supported app creates a group chat for up to 5 people aimed at smoking cessation, where participants can anonymously post counts, photos, and comments daily. Logistic regression analyses adjusted for demographic and smoking-related variables were used to estimate the odds ratios for smoking cessation. Engagement with the app (usage days and posting frequency) was analyzed within the intervention groups.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>A total of 451 participants were included in the per-protocol analysis (260 in the intervention groups and 191 in the control group). The 12-week abstinence rate was significantly higher in the digital peer-supported app + nicotine gum group compared to the gum-only group (59.2% [154/260] vs 38.7% [74/191]). The adjusted odds ratio of smoking cessation was 2.41 (95% CI 2.07-2.81), indicating a significant impact of digital peer support. Both higher duration of digital peer-supported app usage and increased posting frequency were positively associated with cessation success (P for trend <.001).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The addition of a digital peer-supported app to nicotine gum use significantly improved smoking cessation outcomes among working smokers. These findings provide preliminary evidence for the feasibility and effectiveness of integrating group-based digital peer support into smoking cessation interventions.</p>","PeriodicalId":14756,"journal":{"name":"JMIR mHealth and uHealth","volume":"13 ","pages":"e68638"},"PeriodicalIF":6.2000,"publicationDate":"2025-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12364421/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"JMIR mHealth and uHealth","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.2196/68638","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"HEALTH CARE SCIENCES & SERVICES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Smoking cessation has become a global priority, with peer support interventions shown to improve abstinence rates. However, no studies have examined the effectiveness of a group-based digital peer-supported app combined with nicotine gum for smoking cessation among working populations.
Objective: This study aimed to assess whether adding a digital peer-supported app to standard nicotine gums improves 12-week smoking abstinence rates among current working smokers in employment-based settings.
Methods: A nonrandomized comparison trial was conducted with current working smokers in Japan. Eligible participants smoked at least 1 cigarette per day, owned a smartphone (iOS or Android), and were enrolled in their company's health insurance program. Participants were self-selected into one of the two intervention groups (digital peer-supported app + nicotine gums) or a control group (nicotine gums only). The digital peer-supported app creates a group chat for up to 5 people aimed at smoking cessation, where participants can anonymously post counts, photos, and comments daily. Logistic regression analyses adjusted for demographic and smoking-related variables were used to estimate the odds ratios for smoking cessation. Engagement with the app (usage days and posting frequency) was analyzed within the intervention groups.
Results: A total of 451 participants were included in the per-protocol analysis (260 in the intervention groups and 191 in the control group). The 12-week abstinence rate was significantly higher in the digital peer-supported app + nicotine gum group compared to the gum-only group (59.2% [154/260] vs 38.7% [74/191]). The adjusted odds ratio of smoking cessation was 2.41 (95% CI 2.07-2.81), indicating a significant impact of digital peer support. Both higher duration of digital peer-supported app usage and increased posting frequency were positively associated with cessation success (P for trend <.001).
Conclusions: The addition of a digital peer-supported app to nicotine gum use significantly improved smoking cessation outcomes among working smokers. These findings provide preliminary evidence for the feasibility and effectiveness of integrating group-based digital peer support into smoking cessation interventions.
期刊介绍：
JMIR mHealth and uHealth (JMU, ISSN 2291-5222) is a spin-off journal of JMIR, the leading eHealth journal (Impact Factor 2016: 5.175). JMIR mHealth and uHealth is indexed in PubMed, PubMed Central, and Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), and in June 2017 received a stunning inaugural Impact Factor of 4.636.
The journal focusses on health and biomedical applications in mobile and tablet computing, pervasive and ubiquitous computing, wearable computing and domotics.
JMIR mHealth and uHealth publishes since 2013 and was the first mhealth journal in Pubmed. It publishes even faster and has a broader scope with including papers which are more technical or more formative/developmental than what would be published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.
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