Stop it

StopIt app – a new intervention from cognitive psychology aimed at smoking cessation in pregnant women in the Netherlands

Smoking in pregnancy is associated with many adverse health outcomes for the unborn child and the mother. Despite this, still one in ten pregnant women report smoking in pregnancy. Currently, the evidence for the current array of successful smoking cessation interventions in a pregnant population is not very compelling.

A new intervention from cognitive psychology is proposed. Combining face to face sessions and an app, craving in cigarettes is induced by thinking about idiosyncratic smoking moments, assisted by looking at smoking related photographs. Next the pregnant women are asked to think about their smoking moment, while completing puzzles. After, they are presented facts about the risks of smoking. Additionally, once a week and once a month, questionnaires are presented to the participants, asking about smoking behaviour, craving for a cigarette, nicotine dependence, stress, affect, self-efficacy and social support.

The StopIt app, developed by Open University, complies with the WASP standard and the General Data Protection Regulation meaning that no data collected is traceable to the individual participants. The smoking cessation app will be used in context of a randomized controlled trial in the Elisabeth and Tweesteden hospitals in the Netherlands.