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Georgia State to Expand mHealth Platform for Smoking Cessation

Georgia State University will use a $3.15 million grant from the National Institutes for Health to expand an mHealth platform for smoking cessation to underserved populations who don't normally access these resources.

Source: ThinkStock

By Eric Wicklund

- Researchers at Georgia State University will be using a $3.15 million federal grant to expand an mHealth program for smoking cessation to underserved populations.

The grant from the National Institutes for Health’s National Cancer Institute will allow Georgia State’s School of Public Health to further develop and evaluate its iQuit Mindfully program, which combines an mHealth app with resources and on-demand coaching.

“The mindfulness program involves different types of meditation, mindful eating and gentle yoga, along with mindfulness practices to cope with cravings and stress,” Claire Spears, a clinical psychologist and assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy & Behavioral Sciences in the School of Public Health and the study’s lead researcher, said in a press release. “Practicing mindfulness can help smokers to ride out cravings and choose healthier ways to respond instead of automatically lighting up a cigarette.”

Researchers want to push this connected health platform out to populations that don’t typically access digital health tools.

“Because most mindfulness research has focused on more affluent and white populations, we are committed to expanding the benefits of mindfulness to low-income and racially and ethnically diverse adults,” Spears added.

Their efforts are fueled in part by a study conducted earlier this year which found that mobile health technology could benefit underserved populations. In that study, almost a quarter of participants living at a poverty level who used the iQuit Mindfully app had quit smoking at least a month after the study, while none who were involved in in-person counseling were able to quit.

According to the researchers, tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the US, while minorities of low socio-economic status are less likely to have access to resources, are less likely to quit smoking and have higher rates of cancer caused by tobacco use.

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