Accepted for/Published in: JMIR XR and Spatial Computing (JMXR)
Date Submitted: Sep 19, 2023
Date Accepted: Jul 8, 2024
Mobile phone based personalized and interactive augmented reality (AR) pictures on enhancing brief advice model for smoking cessation: a pilot randomised controlled trial
ABSTRACT
Background:
Augmented reality (AR) is a novel modality for promoting smoking cessation (SC). AR visualized adverse consequences was only evaluated in non-smokers for education and smoking prevention in previous studies.
Objective:
To assess the feasibility and preliminary effectiveness of AR of pictorial health warnings (PHWs) on cigarette packs for SC.
Methods:
We conducted a pilot randomized controlled trial in adult daily smokers in communities in Hong Kong. All participants received brief smoking cessation advice (AWARD), a warning leaflet, and referral to smoking cessation services at baseline. Interactive chat-based smoking cessation support comprising regular messages and real-time support was provided to all participants via instant messaging apps (e.g., WhatsApp) for 3 months after randomization. Participants in the intervention group additionally received 6 links for viewing the AR PHWs showing the worsening health status of organs related to smoking. Warning levels of AR PHWs were adjustable by smoking behaviors (i.e., smoking durations or daily cigarette consumption) to increase interaction. The primary outcome was self-reported past 7-day point prevalence abstinence (PPA) at 3 months. The acceptability of the AR intervention was assessed by the proportion of participants who had viewed AR PHWs during the intervention. Intention to treat was used, and the risk ratio (RR) of the intervention effect was estimated by Poisson regression.
Results:
17 of 40 (42.5%) participants in the intervention group have viewed the AR PHWs. The intervention group has a higher but non-significant 7-day PPA (17.5% vs. 12.5%; RR 1.40, 95% CI 0.48, 4.07) and quit attempts (37.5% vs. 27.5%; 1.27, 0.65-2.47) at 3 months than the control group. The 3-month self-reported 7-day PPA was higher in those who ever (vs. never) viewed AR PHWs (29.4% vs. 8.7%).
Conclusions:
The mobile-based interactive AR PHWs were feasible and the effectiveness on smoking abstinence should be tested. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04830072
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