Development of SmokeFree Baby: a smoking cessation smartphone app for pregnant smokers

Abstract

Pregnant smokers may benefit from digital smoking cessation interventions, but few have been designed for this population. The aim was to transparently report the development of a smartphone app designed to aid smoking cessation during pregnancy. The development of a smartphone app (‘SmokeFree Baby’) to help pregnant women stop smoking was guided by frameworks for developing complex interventions, including the Medical Research Council (MRC), Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST) and Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW). Two integrative behaviour change theories provided the theoretical base. Evidence from the scientific literature and behaviour change techniques (BCTs) from the BCT Taxonomy v1 informed the intervention content. The app was developed around five core modules, each with a distinct intervention target (identity change, stress management, health information, promoting use of face-to-face support and behavioural substitution) and available in a ‘control’ or ‘full’ version. SmokeFree Baby has been developed as part of a multiphase intervention optimization to identify the optimum combination of intervention components to include in smartphone apps to help pregnant smokers stop smoking.