Sensefum: una aplicació mòbil per smartphone per reduir la incidència de tabaquisme

Abstract

Introduction: smoking refers to an addiction to tobacco addiction caused mainly by nicotine. This fact affects almost a quarter of the European population over 15 years old and involves several pathologies that fundamentally affect the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. Those entail a risk to the health of tobacco consumers and, consequently, an increase of health system's outlay. At the same time, as a result of the pandemic, the use of ICTs in health have increased significantly. Telemedicine is today a complement of conventional healthcare and allows agile service and time savings in consultation. Several studies have shown that mobile and web applications in health care can improve accessibility, adherence, and treatment tracking. Specifically in smoking-related applications, some studies concluded that combining the care work in combination with apps for smoking cessation improved therapeutic adherence and motivation during the process. However, they also assert that there is a lack of information based on evidence. Other authors, however, argue that further studies are needed to determine the effectiveness of these applications. Objectives: this project aims to study the effectiveness of a mobile application in smoking cessation to increase adherence to treatment and keep a high motivation to quit smoking. Methodology: an app prototype is designed following the methodology of the document “Guia bàsica de recomanacions pel desenvolupament d’app de salut i atenció social” written by Fundació TIC Salut Social. Prior to the dissemination of the application, a case-control study will be carried out to verify the effectiveness of the motivation and adherence to the treatment of the mobile application. Conclusion: an app prototype is proposed and each phase of the project is designed to test the effectiveness and subsequent dissemination of the instrument in the future.