Funding Source

Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)

Project Period

3/1/22 – 8/31/27

Principal Investigator

Jesse Dallery, PhD (University of Florida); Ramzi Salloum, PhD (MPI) (University of Florida)

Other Project Staff

Jonathan Bricker, PhD, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; François Modave, PhD, UF College of Medicine; Ji-Hyun Lee, DrPH, UF College of Medicine; Ryan P. Theis, PhD, UF College of Medicine; Maribeth P. Williams, MD, UF College of Medicine; Christopher Cogle, MD, UF College of Medicine, CMO of Florida Medicaid.

Project Summary

Tobacco smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death in the United States. Smoking harms nearly every organ in the body and costs the United States billions of dollars each year. Recent improvements in digital technology and in behavioral science have led to two breakthroughs in mobile health (mHealth) treatments for smoking cessation.

One treatment, iCanQuit, is the only mHealth smoking cessation approach shown effective in a large (phase 3) clinical trial. iCanQuit is a modern, cognitive-behavioral treatment that promotes cessation through greater acceptance of triggers for smoking and commitment to personal values. The second, Motiv8, promotes smoking cessation with automatic financial rewards based on actual evidence of smoking abstinence. Motiv8 is part of the new generation of technology-enabled health incentive treatments that can reach an increasingly diverse range of people.

This project is directly responsive to the 2020 Surgeon General’s report on smoking cessation. The report identifies a gap in the evidence related to the effectiveness of mHealth smoking cessation treatments compared to other forms of treatment, such as state quitlines that provide telephone counseling. To fill this gap, the “PROMOTE-UP Florida Study” will compare the combination of iCanQuit and Motiv8, iCanQuit alone, and the Florida Quitline.

Public Health Relevance

Patients, clinicians, and insurance companies face important unanswered questions about mHealth treatments. Which treatments should be used to promote smoking cessation? Is a combination of treatments more effective? Are new mHealth approaches more effective than existing quitlines? Who responds best to which treatment? These questions are particularly relevant to patients and clinicians in rural areas, where access to evidence-based smoking treatment is limited.