I have been working since 2015 with a fantastic team of health economists, public health researchers, biostatisticians and game designers on a series of projects on smoking cessation. Our aim is to improve the development of mHealth technologies using insights from behavioral economics, clinical psychology, and game design to help smokers kill their bad habit for good. More generally, I am interested in studying app-delivered behaviour change and how behavioral science can improve health technology.
PEER MENTORING
Our first line of work focuses on the impact of peer mentoring interventions for smoking cessation. In one trial, we studied the effect of peer mentoring delivered by former smokers via text messages. More recent work on the topic includes a systematic review and meta-analysis looking at the effect of providing peer support for smoking cessation:
Peer mentoring and automated text messaging for smoking cessation: A randomized pilot trial, with J. S. White, J. Thrul, J. Bontemps-Jones, L. Abroms, and J. L. Westmaas, Nicotine & Tobacco Research (2020), Vol. 22(3), 371-380 [supplemental appendix] [OSF page]
Effectiveness of Peer-Support Interventions for Smoking Cessation: A Systematic Review . and Meta-Analysis, with P. Yuan, J. L. Westmaas, J. Thrul, J. F. Hilton, and J. S. White, Nicotine & Tobacco Research (2023), ntad059 (Editor’s choice). [OSF page]
INNER DRAGON GAME
Our second set of trials focuses on the use of gamification to increase user engagement with mHealth apps. For this project, we have been working with Smoke Free to develop a game called “Inner Dragon”, with various functionalities. We completed a design and feasibility evaluation as well as a pilot trial focusing on engagement outcomes (manuscript under preparation). Smoke Free was approved for prescription in Germany in February 2023, with the game live in the app since then. Future work will focus on the improvement of the Inner Dragon game features and a randomized trial to evaluate impact on medium-term smoking abstinence.
Gamifying a Leading Smartphone App for Smoking Cessation: Design and Feasibility Evaluation of Inner Dragon, with J. S. White, M. K. Salem, J. L. Westmaas, B. R. Raiff, C. Lyles, L. C. Abroms, and J. Thrul (2023), forthcoming in JMIR Serious Games. [OSF page]
COVID-19
During the pandemic, I also took part in a project led by Johannes Abeler to understand the acceptability of contact-tracing apps for Covid-19.
Acceptability of App-Based Contact Tracing for COVID-19: Cross-Country Survey Study, with S. Altmann, L. Milsom, H. Zillessen, R. Blasone, F. Gerdon, R. Bach, F. Kreuter, D. Nosenzo, and J. Abeler, JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth (2020), Vol. 8(8): e19857. [OSF page]
Upping uptake of COVID contact tracing apps, Nature Human Behaviour, News & Views article (2021), 5, 183-184.