Durability of Abstinence After Completing a Comprehensive Digital Smoking Cessation Program Incorporating a Mobile...

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Behavioral Science
• Digital Health

Background:

• Cigarette smoking remains a leading cause of preventable death and disease.
• Innovative cessation programs are crucial for public health.
• The Pivot program offers a novel, technology-enhanced approach to smoking cessation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess longer-term outcomes of the Pivot smoking cessation program.
• To evaluate smoking behavior, quit rates, and continuous abstinence durability 3 months after program completion.
• To identify predictors of successful smoking abstinence.

Main Methods:

• Prospective remote cohort study of 319 US-based adult smokers (≥5 cigarettes/day).
• Data collected via online questionnaire 3 months post-program.
• Outcomes included cigarettes per day (CPD), quit attempts, 7- and 30-day point prevalence abstinence (PPA), and continuous abstinence.

Main Results:

• CPD reduced by 52.6% at final follow-up (mean 7.2 months post-onboarding).
• Quit rates increased post-program: 35.4% achieved 7-day PPA and 31.3% achieved 30-day PPA (ITT).
• Continuous abstinence was achieved by 23.8% (ITT), with 86.4% of those achieving 30-day PPA at program end sustaining abstinence.

Conclusions:

• The Pivot program demonstrates sustained and improved quit rates and continuous abstinence at longer-term follow-up.
• Technology-driven interventions like Pivot can provide effective and durable smoking cessation solutions.
• Lower baseline CPD, higher self-efficacy, and higher education predicted abstinence success.