Smoking cessation message testing to inform app-based interventions – an online experiment
Josef Hamoud, Janardan Devkota, Timothy Regan, Amanda Luken, Joseph Waring, Jasmin (Jiuying) Han, Felix Naughton, Roger Vilardaga, Jonathan Bricker, Carl Latkin, Meghan Moran, Johannes Thrul

TL;DR
This study tested how young adult smokers rate messages for quitting smoking, finding that both distraction and acceptance-themed messages are similarly rated, but some groups find them less helpful.
Contribution
The study provides insights into how different population subgroups rate smoking cessation messages, informing the design of more inclusive digital interventions.
Findings
Distraction and acceptance messages received similar overall ratings from young adult smokers.
Male participants and those with higher education rated messages more favorably.
Daily smokers found messages less helpful for coping with urges and quitting.
Abstract
Background: To improve the efficacy of digital smoking cessation interventions for young adults, intervention messages need to be acceptable and appropriate for this population. The current study compared ratings of smoking cessation and urge reduction messages based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (distraction themed) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (acceptance themed) in young adults who smoke. Methods: A total of 124 intervention messages were rated by an online Qualtrics panel of N=301 diverse young adults who currently smoked tobacco cigarettes (Age M=26.6 years; 54.8% male; 51.5% racial/ethnic minority; 16.9% sexual or gender minority (SGM); 62.5% daily smoking). Each participant rated 10 randomly selected messages (3,010 total message ratings; 24.3 ratings per message) on 5-point scales (higher scores representing more favorable ratings) evaluating quality of content,…
Genes, proteins, chemicals, diseases, species, mutations and cell lines named across the full text — each resolved to its canonical identifier and authoritative record.
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
Taxonomy
TopicsSmoking Behavior and Cessation · Behavioral Health and Interventions · Media Influence and Health
