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Randomized, controlled pilot trial of a smartphone app for smoking cessation using acceptance and commitment therapy
Open accessAbstract
Background There is a dual need for (1) innovative theory-based smartphone applications for smoking cessation and (2) controlled trials to evaluate their efficacy. Accordingly, this study tested the feasibility, acceptability, preliminary efficacy, and mechanism of behavioral change of an innovative smartphone-delivered acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) application for smoking cessation vs. an application following US Clinical Practice Guidelines.Method Adult participants were recruited nationally into the double-blind randomized controlled pilot trial (n=196) that compared smartphone-delivered ACT for smoking cessation application (SmartQuit) with the National Cancer Institute's application for smoking cessation (QuitGuide).Results We recruited 196 participants in two months. SmartQuit participants opened their application an average of 37.2 times, as compared to 15.2 times for QuitGuide participants (p<0001). The overall quit rates were 13% in SmartQuit vs. 8% in QuitGuide (OR=2.7; 95% CI=0.8-10.3). Consistent with ACT's theory of change, among those scoring low (below the median) on acceptance of cravings at baseline (n=88), the quit rates were 15% in SmartQuit vs. 8% in QuitGuide (OR=2.9; 95% CI=0.6-20.7).Conclusions ACT is feasible to deliver by smartphone application and shows higher engagement and promising quit rates compared to an application that follows US Clinical Practice Guidelines. As results were limited by the pilot design (e.g., small sample), a full-scale efficacy trial is now needed.
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“ACT has been administered successfully in 1-day workshops [45], telehealth coaching calls [52, 55], online and smartphone interventions [53], and 20-min sessions integrated into primary care visits [51], demonstrating the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of brief ACT interventions.”
From Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: A Transdiagnostic Behavioral Intervention for Mental Health and Medical Conditions. (2017) · cites this paper as [55]
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In the citing paper
“Work by Bricker et al. [53 -56] has demonstrated that ACT interventions in various delivery formats (face-to-face, online, smartphone app, telephone) have led to greater smoking cessation rates than gold-standard cognitive behavioral therapy comparison interventions.”
From Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: A Transdiagnostic Behavioral Intervention for Mental Health and Medical Conditions. (2017) · cites this paper as [55]
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“Of the five RCTs of ACT for smoking cessation that Lee et al. [30] analyzed, three were conducted by Bricker et al. [35–37], who have continued to publish in this area since that time [38, 39].”
From A Randomized Feasibility/Acceptability Trial of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for People with HIV Who Drink at Unhealthy Levels. (2026) · cites this paper as [37]
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“In these randomized controlled trials, the effectiveness of ACT has been demonstrated for a wide range of mental health issues, including anxiety [21], substance abuse, psychosis [22], aggression, and treatment-resistant psychopathology [23].”
From Application of the Nursing Model Based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) in Improving Mental Health and Quality of Life after Colorectal Cancer Drug Chemotherapy (2021) · cites this paper as [22]
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Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Heffner, J.L., Mull, K., Kientz, J.L., Vilardaga, R., Bricker, J.B. (in review). What is popular is not always right: feature-level analysis of the first acceptance and commitment therapy smartphone application for smoking cessation.
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“A total of 10 studies were at low risk of attrition bias [9-11,31,35,36,38,42,43,45].”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialMobile phone text messaging and app-based interventions for smoking cessation
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Milne-Ives, M., Lam, C., De Cock, C., Van Velthoven, M. H., & Meinert, E. (2020) · JMIR mhealth and uhealth · doi:10.2196/17046 · Cited by 393
Metadata
- Authors
- Bricker, J. B., Mull, K. E., Kientz, J. A., Vilardaga, R., Mercer, L. D., Akioka, K. J., & Heffner, J. L.
- Affiliations
- University of Washington (US)
- Fred Hutch Cancer Center (US)
- Corresponding author
- Bricker, Jonathan B.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Drug and Alcohol Dependence
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2014-10
- Volume
- 143
- Pages
- 87-94
- ISSN
- 0376-8716 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4201179
- OpenAlex
- W2089288064
- Cited by
- 340
- References
- 43
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 25 · 2022: 34 · 2021: 35 · 2020: 33 · 2019: 34 · 2018: 40 · 2017: 36 · 2016: 34 · 2015: 21 · 2014: 3
- FWCI
- 20.83
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Drug and Alcohol Dependence (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- National Institute of Mental Health (T32MH082709)
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (K99DA037276, K23DA026517)
- National Cancer Institute (R01CA151251, R01CA166646)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Smoking Behavior and Cessation
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
- Keywords
- smoking cessation, acceptance and commitment therapy, mobile application, mobile health, quit rates, app engagement, feasibility and acceptability
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Double-Blind Method, Female, Humans, Male, Pilot Projects, Therapy, Computer-Assisted, Smoking Cessation, Behavior, Addictive, Treatment Outcome, Cell Phone, Mobile Applications, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
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