Smartwatches could be used to help people quit smoking, a UK study suggests.
Researchers from England have developed pioneering motion sensor software that can detect the typical hand movements that occur when someone is holding a cigarette.
When cigarette use is detected, an alert flashes up on the smartwatch screen. An app on the device delivers a vibration with a text message designed by smokers and former smokers, offering support to stop smoking.
One message reads “Stopping smoking lets you breathe more easily … Quitting is good”, while others contain a tally of how many cigarettes were smoked and the total number of drags taken that day.
The researchers, from the University of Bristol, believe their app is the first just-in-time intervention for preventing smoking relapse that runs entirely on a smartwatch and does not need to be paired with a smartphone.
Chris Stone, of the University of Bristol’s tobacco and alcohol research group, said an initial lapse was a vulnerable moment for people trying to quit, and risked leading to a full relapse to smoking.
“People like smartwatches. They like the idea of it delivering a message at the point that they smoke.
“Therefore, if we can identify this point of lapse, and deliver an intervention precisely at that point, we have an opportunity to improve the success of the quit attempt.”
Stone added: “We have aimed to harness the latest thinking in intervention design, and deliver it in a convenient wearable package with minimal burden to the user and maximum engagement with behaviour change; and in doing so, make a difference to people’s lives.”
In the study, published in the journal JMIR Formative Research, the smartwatch app was tested on 18 people interested in quitting smoking. The participants were aged between 18 and 70, and smoked more than 10 cigarettes a day with their right hand.
They wore a TicWatch loaded with the app for two weeks, before completing a questionnaire consisting of 27 questions.
In total, 66% of participants said it was acceptable to wear the smartwatch with the motion sensor software, while 61% said the content of messages was relevant to them.
Positive feedback included people reporting that the app raised awareness of smoking, made them feel positive about quitting, made them stop and think, helped them smoke less and provided constant encouragement.
However, negative responses were that repeated messages lost their effectiveness, some messages did not appear quickly enough, there was not enough variety of messages and some were too vague.
The next step is a longer-term effectiveness trial, which could use a greater variety of messages, the researchers said.
Alizée Froguel, prevention policy manager at Cancer Research UK, said: “This study shows that smartwatches could be a useful method to help people quit smoking, but more research is needed to understand how effective they are.
“There are many tools available to help people quit, and getting support from your free local stop smoking service will give you the best chance of stopping successfully.”
