Smiling Instead of Smoking

SiS (“Smiling Instead of Smoking”) is an app that engages you in daily positive psychology exercises over the course of 7 weeks, and assigns ‘behavioral challenges’ every 2-4 days to coach you through the steps towards smoking cessation. This is an app designed by scientists based on existing evidence and clinical guidelines regarding smoking cessation [https://www.cancer.gov/publications/patient-education/clearing-the-air]. The effectiveness of this app will be tested, as funded by a grant from the American Cancer Society [https://www.cancer.org/]. The key innovation of this app is its use of positive psychology, which is a promising new approach to smoking cessation [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4612345/]. The happiness exercises used in this app have been fully vetted [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0740547218303349], and the app provides scientific facts and insights along the way (i.e., “Owl Wisdoms”). Our goal is to inform and empower, while engaging you in daily practices that enhance and/or maintain your happiness, while you undertake the challenge of quitting smoking.

How Well Does It Work?

The app you are downloading is Version 2 of this app. It builds on the feedback received by participants in a study evaluating Version 1 of the app [https://www.iproc.org/2018/2/e11762/], who found the app easy to use and useful, and whose confidence to quit smoking increased, and urge to smoke decreased. Thirty percent of study participants were biochemically confirmed to be abstinent from smoking 2 weeks after their chosen quit day, and 6 months after the chosen quit day, 55% of study participants reported having been abstinent from smoking for the past 30 days.

By Using This App You Support Science

Over the next year, we will gather data and feedback on this version of the app. Based on this information, we will further improve and streamline this app, and then test its effectiveness in a randomized clinical trial. By using this app, you are providing valuable data to us. As you use the app, and if you permit it, we will log how you use the app (e.g., percent of days on which you completed a happiness exercise, number of behavioral challenges you completed) to give us an idea of how well this app works. We are also conducting a 2nd study on how using this app impacts smoking cessation (if you want to join the study, find more information here [https://scholar.harvard.edu/bettina.hoeppner/sis]). Beyond these two ways of providing us with valuable data and feedback, you could also simply email us and share your thoughts and feedback – we would love to hear from you! To provide feedback, simply email the study team (sis@mgh.harvard.edu) or the principal investigator for this app directly, Dr. Bettina Hoeppner (bhoeppner@mgh.harvard.edu).

Good luck with your quit attempt! Quitting smoking is critically important to your health – including quitting occasional smoking. We hope this app will make you smile along the way, and support you in reaching your goal.