Mobile Applications Features for Smoking Cessation : A Review Article

Background: Smoking harms all of body s organs, causes many illnesses and decreases smokers health. Smoking cessation decreases risk of smoking-related diseases and add life years on the other hand, smartphone use is expanding dramatically worldwide and Mobile Health(mHealth) can be a great opportunity to enter all aspects of people’s health. Applications on smartphones can also help smokers for smoking cessation plan. Objectives: the objective of this study is to review the free apps`s features in the English language for smartphones in two of the most famous mobile app stores. Materials/Patients and Methods: Two main mobile app stores including Google Play (Android), App Store (iOS) in December 2016 were searched for freely available mobile apps features. Three independent experts in the field of healthcare-related mobile apps were included in the assessment section. Results: We evaluated 100 apps (42 from Google Play Store, 58 from App Store). While a wide selection of mobile applications is available for smoking cessation, only 11 are useful for successful smoking. Important features of these apps are focused on the quitting goal, showing motivational picture, receiving supportive messages , tracking individual`s craving and the number of times for smoking quitting , monitoring individuals progress over time, calculating the saved money via smoking quit, and creating a personalized plan for smoking end up. Conclusion: We suggest smokers, health policy makers and medical mobile application developers to pay attention mHealth opportunity for smoking cessation programs development and implementation.