Personal Counseling on Smart Phones For Smoking Cessation

Abstract

The unhealthy consequences of smoking cigarettes are well known and yet people still continue to smoke. Recent research involving technology to help people quit smoking has had limited success. Personal face-to-face counseling has historically proven the most successful and effective means to help people quit, but most people are reluctant or too busy to attend counseling sessions. As a potential solution to this problem, we explore providing personal counseling to users via their mobile phones. The advice, written by experts, is based on data about the user and their actual smoking habits collected through smart phones. From a prototype deployment with users in real life context, we found that this type of personal counseling is influential in changing peoples' smoking behaviors for the better. In addition, being made aware of actual smoking habits helps people form strategies that improve their ability to quit.