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“At least someone thinks I’m doing well”: A real-world evaluation of the quit-smoking app StopCoach for lower socio-economic status smokers

Meijer, Eline; Korst, Janneke S; Oosting, Kristiene G; Heemsker, Eline; Hermsen, Sander; Willemsen, Marc C; Van den Putte, Bas; ... Brown, Jamie; + view all (2021) “At least someone thinks I’m doing well”: A real-world evaluation of the quit-smoking app StopCoach for lower socio-economic status smokers. Addiction Science and Clinical Practice , 16 , Article 48. 10.1186/s13722-021-00255-5. Green open access

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Abstract

Background: Smoking is more prevalent and persistent among lower socio-economic status (SES) compared with higher-SES groups, and contributes greatly to SES-based health inequities. Few interventions exist that efectively help lower-SES smokers quit. This study evaluated “De StopCoach”, a mobile phone delivered eHealth intervention targeted at lower-SES smokers based on the evidence-based StopAdvisor, in a real-world setting (fve municipalities) in The Netherlands in 2019–2020. // Method: We conducted individual semi-structured interviews with project leaders, healthcare professionals, and participating smokers (N=22), and examined log data from the app (N=235). For practical reasons, SES of app users was not measured. Qualitative data were analysed using the Framework Approach, with the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) and Unifed Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) as theoretical models. // Results: Qualitative data showed that factors from the Intervention and Setting domains were most important for the implementation. StopCoach seemed suitable for lower-SES smokers in terms of performance and efort expectancy, especially when integrated with regular smoking cessation counseling (SCC). Key barriers to implementation of the app were limited integration of the app in SCC programs in practice, difculty experienced by project leaders and healthcare professionals to engage the local community, and barriers to SCC more generally (e.g., perceived resistance to quitting in patients) that prevented healthcare professionals from ofering the app to smokers. Quantitative data showed that 48% of app users continued using the app after the preparation phase and pre-quit day, and that 33% of app users had attempted to quit. Both app adherence and quit attempts were more likely if smokers also received SCC from a professional coach. Posthoc analyses suggest that adherence is related to higher likelihood of a quit attempt among participants with and without a professional coach. // Conclusions: Smokers, healthcare professionals and project leaders indicated in the interviews that the StopCoach app would work best when combined with SCC. It also appears from app log that app adherence and quit attempts by app users can be facilitated by combining the app with face-to-face SCC. As such, blended care appears promising for helping individual smokers quit, as it combines the best of regular SCC and eHealth. Further research on blended care for lower-SES smokers is needed.

Type: Article
Title: “At least someone thinks I’m doing well”: A real-world evaluation of the quit-smoking app StopCoach for lower socio-economic status smokers
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1186/s13722-021-00255-5
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13722-021-00255-5
Language: English
Additional information: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
Keywords: Socio-economic status;Smoking; eHealth;Blended care; Real-world evaluation; Implementation
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Behavioural Science and Health
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10130365
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