ReviewTobacco prevention & cessation2020
Effectiveness of mobile applications to quit smoking: Systematic review and meta-analysis.
Review in Tobacco prevention & cessation, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 11 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- Evaluating the Impact of a Game (Inner Dragon) on User Engagement Within a Leading Smartphone App for Smoking Cessation: Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Trial
- Effectiveness of a Conversational Chatbot (Dejal@bot) for the Adult Population to Quit Smoking: Pragmatic, Multicenter, Controlled, Randomized Clinical Trial in Primary Care.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2022Trial
- Article
- Effectiveness and Adherence of Standalone Digital Tobacco Cessation Modalities: A Systematic Review of Systematic Reviews.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Quitline Queensland: the journey to a globally unique smoking cessation service in Australia.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- The impact of gamification on smoking cessation: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Tobacco induced diseases · 2025Review
- Feasibility of recruiting young adults with low socioeconomic status for formative evaluation of a smoking cessation mobile intervention.Tobacco prevention & cessation · 2024Article
- Varenicline Combined With Oral Nicotine Replacement Therapy and Smartphone-Based Medication Reminders for Smoking Cessation: Feasibility Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR formative research · 2023Article
- Non-pharmacological interventions for smoking cessation: analysis of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.BMC medicine · 2023Review
- Use of the Smoking Cessation App Ex-Smokers iCoach and Associations With Smoking-Related Outcomes Over Time in a Large Sample of European Smokers: Retrospective Observational Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Observational
- Development, validation and transfer to clinical practice of a mobile application for the treatment of smoking.Atencion primaria · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionTobacco is the leading cause of preventable mortality. The use of mobile phones has grown exponentially, becoming a powerful tool to be used in health care.
methodsIn order to assess the effectiveness of mobile phones to quit smoking, we have carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials evaluating interventions based on mobile applications for smartphones, that were not a smaller version of the same application, against other types of therapy. To address this, a bibliographic search was carried out in MEDLINE, EMBASE and COCHRANE LIBRARY. To obtain the combined effect, the relative risk and the 95% confidence interval were used. A heterogeneity and sensitivity analysis were also conducted.
resultsA total of nine studies were identified, but five were excluded. Qualitative review was performed with four selected studies, but quantitative analysis was carried out for only three, given the impossibility of calculating the RR in one of the studies. After combining the results, an RR of 0.901 (95% CI: 0.57-1.423) was calculated comparing the effectiveness of mobile applications versus others type of interventions. This measure was robust, as shown by the sensitivity analysis.
conclusionsAccording to the results, it cannot be concluded that apps are effective for quitting tobacco. There are very few clinical trials published evaluating the effectiveness of mobile applications compared to other alternatives. Several clinical trials are still in progress, therefore their results have not been included in the present meta-analysis.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.