My QuitLine iPhone app can help smokers quit
Smokers can turn to their iPhones to help them quit smoking with evidence-based treatment through a free application downloadable from iPhone or iTunes. The application links users to the National Cancer Institute's quitline service where they speak to a live quitline coach or use live text to get advice on quitting.
Lorien Abroms, ScD, MA, assistant research professor in the Department of Prevention and Community Health, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, designed the "My QuitLine" application with feedback from the National Tobacco Cessation Collaborative (NTCC). Abroms designed the application after reading an NTCC report about the lack of iPhone applications that link smokers to proven therapies. Abroms studies how new media technologies can be applied for smoking cessation.
"Quitline counseling has been shown to double a person's chance of quitting smoking," she said. "It is important to make sure that in these new media environments, people still receive information about what has been proven to work in quitting smoking and get access to tools that are based on these proven therapies."
iPhone users can find the app by searching "My QuitLine" or "quit smoking" on their iPhone or on iTunes. According to The George Washington University, no other stop smoking applications use products or services recommended as effective by the 2008 Public Health Service Guideline Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence.
Todd Phillips, director of the NTCC, said, "The My QuitLine app finally gives iPhone users access to an evidence-based method to help them quit smoking. The best part is that it is free and proven to work." For more information, go to www.tobacco-cessation.org.
Smokers can turn to their iPhones to help them quit smoking with evidence-based treatment through a free application downloadable from iPhone or iTunes.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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