Belderson Pippa, McDaid Lisa, Emery Joanne, Coleman Tim, Leonardi-Bee Jo, Naughton Felix
School of Health Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
Centre for Academic Primary Care, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
Nicotine Tob Res. 2025 Jan 22;27(2):225-235. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntae184.
Unsupported attempts to quit smoking during pregnancy have a low success rate. Chances of quitting successfully are higher with an interpersonal treatment program but there is low uptake of this in the United Kingdom. Delivering a pregnancy-specific treatment program digitally may provide an alternative treatment route. This study explored pregnant smokers' perceptions of barriers and facilitators to using digital cessation support, along with identifying modes of delivery and engagement enhancers.
Semi-structured interviews were carried out with an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample of 25 participants with recent experience of attempting to quit smoking in pregnancy, aged 20-40, from the United Kingdom. An inductive thematic analysis approach was used.
Digital smoking cessation support, particularly a smartphone app, for pregnancy was felt to overcome many barriers to engaging with interpersonal support, being viewed as more convenient, and nonjudgmental, providing better consistency of advice, and enhancing privacy and autonomy. However, some participants felt that removing access to a human could undermine a digital support package and reduce engagement. Popular engagement enhancers included self-monitoring (eg, digital recording of smoking; smartphone-linked carbon monoxide monitoring), online communities, and remote access to nicotine substitution options. Digital support was viewed as having potential as a stand-alone intervention or working in conjunction with standard interpersonal treatment.
The findings support the investigation of a digital support package as both a stand-alone and adjunct to standard interpersonal cessation support in pregnancy to increase the proportion of pregnant smokers who make a supported quit attempt.
In many countries like the United Kingdom, there are few smoking cessation options routinely available that provide effective support for smoking cessation in pregnancy. To maximize impact, health services need an effective range of strategies to engage with and support quit attempts made by all pregnant smokers, particularly as interpersonal support options are not often well used. Development of a pregnancy-specific digital support package for smoking cessation in pregnancy may represent a means to help address this gap.
孕期自行戒烟成功率较低。人际治疗方案有助于提高成功戒烟几率，但在英国，此类方案的接受度不高。提供针对孕期的数字化治疗方案或许能提供另一种治疗途径。本研究探讨了孕期吸烟女性对于使用数字化戒烟支持的障碍与促进因素的看法，并确定了提供方式和增强参与度的因素。
对25名年龄在20至40岁之间、近期有过孕期戒烟尝试经历、来自英国、种族和社会经济背景各异的参与者进行了半结构化访谈。采用归纳主题分析法。
对于孕期而言，数字化戒烟支持，尤其是智能手机应用程序，被认为克服了许多参与人际支持的障碍，被视为更便捷、无偏见，能提供更一致的建议，并增强隐私和自主性。然而，一些参与者认为缺乏人际接触可能会削弱数字化支持方案并降低参与度。受欢迎的增强参与度的因素包括自我监测（如吸烟的数字化记录；与智能手机连接的一氧化碳监测）、在线社区以及远程获取尼古丁替代选项。数字化支持被视为有潜力作为独立干预措施，或与标准人际治疗相结合。
研究结果支持对数字化支持方案进行调查，该方案既可以作为独立措施，也可以作为孕期标准人际戒烟支持的辅助手段，以提高接受支持进行戒烟尝试的孕期吸烟女性的比例。
在许多国家，如英国，常规提供的戒烟选项很少能为孕期戒烟提供有效支持。为了最大化影响，卫生服务机构需要一系列有效的策略来参与并支持所有孕期吸烟女性的戒烟尝试，特别是鉴于人际支持选项的使用率往往不高。开发针对孕期的数字化戒烟支持方案可能是弥补这一差距的一种方式。
