Previously submitted to: JMIR Human Factors (no longer under consideration since Feb 03, 2025)
Date Submitted: Nov 12, 2024
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Integrating the Smokefree app into a multi-component intervention for people with mental health conditions who smoke: a brief report of addressing population-specific needs in a research context
ABSTRACT
Background:
Evidence concerning the design and testing of mobile digital interventions for patients with mental health conditions, including severe mental illness is emerging. However, little is known about how to support patient needs and mitigate potential risks when offering a smoking cessation app in this population.
Objective:
We aimed to identify patient support needs in addition to patient and app-related factors influencing patient safety when interacting with the Smoke Free app.
Methods:
Workshops and interviews were conducted with members of a patient and public involvement (PPI) panel and mental health professionals (MHPs). Summaries of written and verbal feedback from PPI members were collated, and semi-structured interviews with MHPs were thematically analysed.
Results:
Five PPI members and six MHPs participated. PPI members identified support needs for app use, including a tailored demonstration of the app, and reassurance about data confidentiality. Safety issues identified by MHPs included potential inappropriate use of the ‘live’ in-app advisor function; unhelpful or risky social interactions when using in-app peer support groups, and app use exacerbating mental health symptoms related to the sharing of personal information.
Conclusions:
An onboarding session, resources, and procedures to support the mitigation of key risks were developed to support patients with imminent discharges from acute mental health settings when interacting with the Smoke Free app. The next stage is to deliver the multi-component intervention in a randomised controlled feasibility study, including a process evaluation to evaluate the offer of the Smoke Free app and highlight any need for further refinements to facilitate uptake and engagement. Clinical Trial: ISRCTN77855199
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.