About a quarter of people who smoke do not smoke every day. While being a non-daily smoker can impact health, including risk for cancer, existing strategies for smoking cessation are not specifically tailored to this population. To better support smoking cessation efforts in non-daily smokers, Bettina Hoeppner, PhD and her colleagues at the Recovery Research Institute have developed a smartphone app called “Smiling Instead of Smoking” or SIS, a behavioral program which uses positive psychology exercises to increase quitting success.
The SIS app uses daily positive psychology exercises over the course of 7 weeks, and assigns “behavioral challenges” every 2-4 days to coach the user through the steps towards smoking cessation. The effectiveness of this app will be tested, as funded by a grant from the American Cancer Society.
The SIS app is available for the iPhone at the Apple store or for Android here.
Those who would like to be part of the next study on this app can contact Dr. Hoeppner’s team at 617-724-3129 or by email at [email protected].
Read More:
Hoeppner BB, Hoeppner SS, Carlon HA, Perez GK, Helmuth E, Kahler CW, Kelly JF. Leveraging Positive Psychology to Support Smoking Cessation in Nondaily Smokers Using a Smartphone App: Feasibility and Acceptability Study. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2019 Jul 3;7(7):e13436.
Hoeppner BB, Hoeppner SS, Kelly L, Schick M, Kelly JF.Smiling Instead of Smoking: Development of a Positive Psychology Smoking Cessation Smartphone App for Non-daily Smokers. Int J Behav Med. 2017 Oct;24(5):683-693.
About Bettina Hoeppner, PhD
Dr. Hoeppner is an experimental psychologist who specializes in addiction science. She is the Associate Director of Research at the Recovery Research Institute and an associate professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at MGH. Her research focuses on the active ingredients underlying addictive behavior change to enhance the effectiveness of existing and emerging interventions for individuals seeking to overcome problematic substance use. Much of her recent work has focused on the role mHealth technologies play in supporting addictive behavior change.
