Smartphone Based Smoking Cessation Intervention

Smoking is becoming increasingly concentrated among individuals with the lowest levels of income, education, and occupational status. In fact, smoking rates in the United States among people living below the poverty line is nearly twice as high as those above the poverty threshold. Highly flexible and low burden technology-based treatment approaches may overcome many of the barriers that have limited the use and effectiveness of traditional smoking cessation treatments among low socioeconomic status (SES) adults. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA), in which mobile devices are used to capture moment-to-moment experiences, allows for the measurement of phenomena in real-time within natural settings. Smartphone-based smoking cessation apps could offer easily accessible, highly tailored, and intensive interventions at a fraction of the cost of traditional smoking cessation counseling. The Smart-T app uses a lapse risk estimator to identify moments of heightened risk for lapse, and the algorithm tailors treatment messages in real-time based upon level of imminent smoking lapse risk and currently present lapse triggers. This study will compare smoking cessation rates for those randomized to the Smart-T app or the NCI QuitGuide app.