New Gaming App Helps Smokers Kick the Habit

A novel smartphone application helps smokers combat cigarette cravings and quit smoking by playing behavioral changing games.

Developed by researchers at Kingston University London and Queen Mary, University of London, the Cigbreak Free app incorporates a combination of 37 theory-based methods for changing behavior as selected by psychologists to help smokers quit. In the game, players have to swipe a certain number of cigarettes to break them within a time limit. There are also mini-games where players have to clear smoke from a room to reveal a health message.

As in regular smartphone games, players have to complete tasks to progress through levels, gaining rewards and gold stars along the way as a form of providing smokers with instant positive feedback. As well as progressing through levels, the app includes a quit journal where users can calculate how much money they are saving. The app has been commissioned for use by five London boroughs as part of their public health smoking cessation services; local residents can download it, enter their postcode and use the app for free.

“Craving is a short-term thing, so if you get a craving at 11am, you can play the game in the warm until it passes, rather than going out into the cold for a cigarette. You’ve also got something to do with your hands other than smoke,” said app co-developer Hope Caton, of the KUL school of computer science and mathematics. “The good thing about a smartphone gaming app is that you can play it anywhere. We’ve had people smoking 25 cigarettes a day quit, some who’ve gone from 25 to four. It shows it can be effective.”

“Some of the health messages and behavior change techniques we have used in the game are based on our previous research, and include showing players the health consequences of a behavior, gaining points for grabbing healthy items, or providing virtual financial incentives,” added app co-developer Professor Robert Walton, MD, of QMUL. “We’re essentially trying to ‘gamify’ these messages and techniques as a way of embedding them in a person’s mind, in the hope that they will then be able to quit smoking.”