Tobbgest, a project, based on gamification, for pregnant smokers to quit the habit

A new project led by Cristina Rey, a research technician at the USR Camp in Tarragona of the IDIAP Jordi Gol i Gurina, and Jordi Duch, a researcher at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, aims to end tobacco addiction in pregnant people through of an application for mobile devices designed ad hoc. Since March 1, the project has entered the recruitment phase of pregnant people who want to participate in the project, up to a total of 400 pregnant women who will be followed for 12 months. The Sexual and Reproductive Health Care Centers (ASSIR) of Camp de Tarragona and Central Catalonia are in charge of finding the participating people.

This project is an adaptation for pregnant people of the Tobbstop project, based on the homonymous application that aims to record the evolution of the smoking cessation process, help in moments of greater anxiety in the process, inform and educate about tobacco problems and the benefits of a healthy life. The project, financed by the Carlos III Health Institute (PI21/01058), is led by a research team made up of different professionals from the Camp de Tarragona Catalan Health Institute and IDIAP Jordi Gol, and has the collaboration of the Department of Computer Science and Mathematics from the Rovira i Virgili University. The Tobbgest project already had a first pilot study with pregnant people in Central Catalonia, with successful results.

About the Tobbstop studio

This team previously developed the Tobbstop study, where they recruited more than 600 people. Among the main results obtained, it stands out that the level of abstinence was significantly higher in the participants of the group that used the Tobbstop App compared to those who did not use it (20.9% of those who used the App managed to quit smoking at 12 months, compared to only 8.25% of those who did not use it). They concluded that regular use of the App to quit smoking is effective compared to usual practice.

About the Tobbstop app

Now, the application is designed to respond to the needs that pregnant women have to face the difficulties of the smoking cessation process. Based on gamification, the application has different tools to help quit smoking:

• The contaminated island that the participant must decontaminate with abstinence and with the acquisition of island improvement elements such as furniture or services, which can be bought in the market in exchange for the coins obtained with the minigames.
• Minigames are embedded applications that allow the user to play during times of stress caused by tobacco withdrawal. There are games of skill and of questions and answers that allow the user to be distracted in moments of maximum temptation to relapse.
• The knowledge library is a repository of text, images and videos on addiction and tobacco and a series of practical advice to accompany the pregnancy and postpartum process, as well as to promote healthy habits.
• The chat or social network that allows interaction and solidarity among all participants. In this chat there is also a direct line with the experts (the research team), who facilitate the resolution of doubts.
• The Tobbgest research team also opens a digital platform in which the therapist can access to view the data and monitor patient visits in coordination with the app.