A Randomized Controlled Trial of an Appearance-Related Intervention for Smoking Cessation among University Students

Aim: To assess the efficacy of appearance related smoking intervention as a motivational trigger for smoking cessation among university students. Objectives: To sensitize the student smokers to quit smoking using the photo aging intervention app and to assess the efficacy of smoking cessation intervention by comparing successful quitting (assessed by Fagerström score) between the intervention and control groups. Methods: The present study is a randomized controlled trial that was carried out among a sample of 156 students having the habit of smoking, who were randomly allocated into intervention and control group. The study was conducted over a period of one year in the Tobacco Cessation Centre (TCC) of a private Dental College and Hospital, Jaipur from October 2018 to September 2019. Both the groups were given behavioral counseling, along with this Smoker face application was used in the intervention group. The groups were assessed at the 3rd and 6th month’s intervals. Objective validation was done using the Cotinine test. Data was analyzed using SPSS (19) software. Results: The highest reduction was seen in the intervention group. 84.61% of participants of the intervention group and 67.94% of participants of the Control group had quit smoking upon objective validation by Cotinine analysis. These findings were found to be statistically significant. Conclusion: The effective usage of the smartphone application along with the usage of behavioral counseling techniques has great potential in contributing as a useful tool for smoking cessation efforts among young adults.